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Having successfully completed his final mission three years prior, which was to retrieve a truck load of plutonium stolen from a US military base in Croatia by freelance international terrorist Stavros, government anti-terrorist agent Jack Paul Quinn is relaxing by his pool in Southern France with Kathryn, his pregnant wife. Quinn is approached by a government representative who tells him that Stavros, Quinn's nemesis, has become active again and tries to convince Quinn to come out of retirement telling Quinn that he ‘can’t retire until he [Stavros] does’. Quinn is reluctant to return to duty but agrees after the same representative is killed by Stavros shortly after the meeting with Quinn. Acting on intelligence received, Quinn travels to Antwerp, Belgium where he meets up with quirky arms dealer Yaz, who equips Quinn with weaponry and then proceeds to meet the Delta team put together to capture Stavros. Stavros has been tracked to an amusement park but Quinn hesitates to give the order to shoot Stavros when it becomes apparent that Stavros is meeting with his six-year-old son. Stavros exploits Quinn's hesitation and a shootout ensues in which Stavros’ son is killed and Stavros is able to escape into a hospital, pursued by Quinn. Stavros and Quinn fight in the hospital’s maternity ward with Stavros getting away after knocking Quinn unconscious in an explosion. Quinn wakes up on 'The Colony', an inescapable, invisible penal institution island for secret agents. Quinn learns that he has been sent to the Colony due to his failure to capture Stavros, that his family has been told he was killed and that only agents considered "too valuable to kill but too dangerous to set free" are committed to the institution. The occupants of the Colony are expected to help analyse terrorist threats and have to register themselves present every day using a fingerprint scanner. Meanwhile, Kathryn receives a call from an art gallery in Rome telling her that they would like to display her sculptures and that they will fly her out immediately. When she arrives, Stavros kidnaps her. Whilst analysing information received from a terrorist bombing, Quinn picks up a message from Stavros telling him that Stavros has captured Kathryn and so Quinn realises he must escape the Colony if he is to save her. Quinn devises a system to fool the fingerprint scanner and is able to leave the island by attaching himself to cargo due to be extracted from the island from the air. Quinn goes to Yaz, the only man who can help him, pleading for assistance in return for access to CIA bank accounts. Yaz agrees to help and the two go to Quinn’s house where they are ambushed by Stavros’ men. After fighting the men off, Quinn receives a message from Stavros telling him that he must go to Rome for his baby’s sake. When they arrive in Rome, Yaz learns that Quinn's wife is pregnant after Stavros delivers a sonogram of the baby to the given rendezvous. Quinn emails Stavros encouraging him to meet in a town square, knowing that Stavros will have to take the bait. At the meeting point, Quinn catches sight of Kathryn in a car but is intercepted by Stavros before he can reach her and a shootout occurs as Kathryn is driven away. Quinn tracks Stavros’ henchmen down to the hotel suite where Kathryn was being held and finds a clue to her whereabouts — a prescription bottle label. Meanwhile, Kathryn is transported to hospital where she gives birth. Using the prescription bottle and with Yaz's help, Quinn is able to track down the hospital where he finds Kathryn but discovers that Stavros has taken his son. Thanks to assistance from a nurse, Quinn locates Stavros and the baby in an explosives-rigged Roman amphitheater. Stavros leaves Quinn in the middle of a minefield with his son and then unleashes a tiger. Yaz arrives on a motorbike and is able to snatch the baby, leaving Quinn to escape from the tiger and go after Stavros. Quinn and Stavros fight in the minefield until Stavros steps on a mine (after Yaz moved the markers) and is left stranded. Quinn, his son and Yaz run as Stavros is charged by the tiger and takes his foot off the mine, a chain reaction rips the amphitheater apart and Yaz is able to shield his friends from the ensuing blast by sheltering under a vending machine. Stavros and the tiger are killed in the blast. 

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Lymon was 13 years old when the teenage group Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers erupted from radios and jukeboxes with their 1956 hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" and appeared in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock (1956). After Mr. Rock and Roll (1957), Lymon started a solo singing career, but it all fell apart. Lymon's career was over by the time he was 18 years old, and he died of a heroin overdose seven years later. Jumping from the 1950s to the 1960s, the film traces the rise and fall of Lymon (Larenz Tate) in a series of flashbacks as courtroom claims on Lymon's royalties are outlined by three women: Zola Taylor (Halle Berry) of the R&B; group The Platters; Elizabeth Waters (Vivica A. Fox), a petty thief from Philadelphia; and schoolteacher Emira Eagle (Lela Rochon). Ending credits show the real Frankie Lymon singing his song "Goody Goody." Little Richard also makes a courtroom appearance, while Miguel A. Nunez Jr. portrays Little Richard in scenes set in the 1950s. The film ends with Emira winning Frankie's estate, although Elizabeth was named the legal surviving spouse of Frankie Lymon. 

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Fei (Andy Lau) is a simple fisherman who possesses great sword- fighting prowess and rescues the 13th Prince of Yin (Kenny Bee) from assassins sent by his brother, the 14th Prince (Kelvin Wong), who is attempting to usurp his throne. Fei invites the injured 13th Prince and his entourage to his village and allows the prince to heal, and the two become fast friends. The next morning, the 14th Prince's troupes have made their way to the village, so Fei leads the 13th Prince and his entourage to hide inside a mausoleum, which turns out to be the tomb of the King of Yin, the 13th Prince's father, and thus, Fei learns of the prince's identity. Fei joins the 13th Prince on his journey to find the Lord of Lan-ling (Chang Yi), hoping to get assistant from the lord's army to defeat the 14th Prince, but they encounter the 14th Prince and his troupes. While fighting off the troupes, the 13th Prince entrusts his bodyguard, Mo-sin (Maggie Cheung) and gives Fei a piece of jade to meet the Lord of Lan-ling and escort his daughter and the prince's fiancé, Princesses Yuet-nga (Anita Mui), back. Fei and Mo-sin meet the lord and Yuet-nga but are ambushed by the 14th Prince's assassins and fends them off. As they escort Yuet-nga on the run, they encounter another group of assassins so Mo-siun stays behind while Fei and Yuet-nga continue on. While staying in a cave during the night, Fei and Yuet-nga were attacked by a face-concealed assassin who they encounter again the next day where Fei was impaled and injured while protecting Yuet-nga. Yuet-nga nurses Fei's wound and the two fall in love as they spend time together and Fei gifts her a bunny. Meanwhile, the assassin who attacked Fei and Yuet-nga turns out to be Mo-sin, who was sent by the 14th Prince to spy on his brother. The 14th Prince threatens to poison Mo-sin if she fails to kill his brother by Moon Autumn. Fei brings Yuet-nga back to his fishing village where she is reunited with the 13th Prince and Lord of Lan- ling announces the engagement of the prince with her daughter, the prince also awards Fei the title of the General of Restoring the Country, but the latter refuses as he is heartbroken and just wants to just live a simple life, and Yuet-nga bides a final farewell to Fei before getting married. At night, Mo- sin found the chance to kill the 13th Prince while the latter was napping, she finds her unable to so haven fallen in love with him. Yuet-nga discovers Mo- sin as a traitor after seeing the 13th Prince's entourage dead and informs the prince. Mo-sin has a change of heart and warns the 13th Prince about his brother's plan. The next day, the 14th Prince leads his troupes into Fei's village where they slaughter 89 villagers, while Fei singlehandedly kills a number of the troupes in a fit a rage. The 14th Prince then confronts his brother, Yuet-nga and Mo-sin inside the mausoleum where he mortally wounds Mo- sin and the 13th Prince and injures Yuet-nga, until Fei barges in and fights the 14th Prince to avenge the deaths of his fellow villagers. Fei is outmatched until his pet killer whale, Neptune, whips the 14th Prince, allowing Yuet-nga to blind the 14th Prince, who then delivers a devastating blow to Yuet-nga. As Yuet-nga dies in Fei's arms, the 14th Prince gets up and stabs Fei, but he is killed when the King's tomb cracks and falls on him. Fei then narrates how he woke up in the middle of the sea with Neptune afterwards, and the mausoleum has collapsed, with Yuet-nga, the 13th Prince, 14th Prince and Mo-sin buried inside. When Fei revisits years after, wildlife flowers have grown on it, reminding him of the dead bodies beneath it. 

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A young honey bee named Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) has recently graduated from college and is about to enter the hive's Honex Industries honey-making workforce alongside his best friend Adam Flayman (Matthew Broderick). Barry is initially excited to join the workforce, but his courageous, non-conformist attitude emerges upon discovering that his choice of job will never change once picked. Later, the two bees run into a group of Pollen Jocks, bees who collect pollen from flowers outside the hive. The Jocks offer to take Barry outside the hive to a flower patch, and he accepts. While on his first pollen-gathering expedition in New York City, Barry gets lost in the rain, and ends up on the balcony of a human florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger). Upon noticing Barry, Vanessa's boyfriend Ken (Patrick Warburton) attempts to squash him, but Vanessa gently catches and releases Barry outside the window, saving his life. Barry later returns to express his gratitude to Vanessa, breaking the sacred rule that bees are not supposed to communicate with humans. Barry and Vanessa develop a close bond, bordering on attraction, and spend time together frequently. Later, while Barry and Vanessa are walking through a grocery store, Barry is horrified to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees' honey for centuries. He decides to journey to Honey Farms, which supplies the grocery store with its honey. Furious at the poor treatment of the bees in the hive, including the use of bee smokers to subdue the colony, Barry decides to sue the human race to put an end to the exploitation of bees. Barry's mission attracts wide attention from bees and humans alike, and hundreds of people show up to watch the trial. Although Barry is up against tough defense attorney Layton T. Montgomery (John Goodman) the trial's first day goes well. That evening, Barry is having dinner with Vanessa when Ken shows up. Vanessa leaves the room, and Ken expresses to Barry that he hates the pair spending time together. When Barry leaves to use the restroom, Ken ambushes Barry and attempts to kill him, only for Vanessa to intervene and break up with Ken. The next day at the trial, Montgomery unleashes an unrepentant character assassination against the bees leading a deeply offended Adam to sting him; Montgomery immediately exaggerates the stinging to make himself appear the victim of an assault while simultaneously denouncing Adam. Adam's actions jeopardize the bees' credibility and put his life in danger, though he manages to survive. While visiting Adam in the hospital, Barry notices two people smoking outside, and is struck by inspiration. The next day, Barry wins the trial by exposing the jury to the cruel treatment bees are subjected to, particularly the smoker, and humans are banned from stealing honey from bees ever again. Having lost the trial, Montgomery cryptically warns Barry that a negative shift in the balance of nature is imminent. As it turns out, the sudden, massive stockpile of honey has put every bee out of a job, including the vitally important Pollen Jocks. As a result, without anything to pollinate them, all of the world's plant life slowly begins to die out. Before long, the last remaining flowers on Earth are being stockpiled in Pasadena, California for what is expected to be the final Tournament of Roses Parade. Barry and Vanessa travel to the parade and steal a parade float, which they load onto a plane to be delivered to the bees so they can re-pollinate the world's flowers. When the plane's pilot and copilot are knocked unconscious, Vanessa is forced to land the plane, with help from Barry and the bees from Barry's hive. Armed with the pollen of the last flowers, Barry and the Pollen Jocks manage to reverse the damage and save the world's flowers, restarting the bees' honey production. Humans and bees are seen working together, and certain brands of honey are now "bee-approved". Barry becomes a member of the Pollen Jocks, helping to pollinate the world's plants. Barry is also seen running a law firm inside Vanessa's flower shop, titled "Insects at Law", handling disputes between animals and humans; Ken is not pleased with this discovery. The film ends with Barry flying off to a flower patch with the Pollen Jocks. 

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Set in 1932 New York City during the Great Depression, Yankee Irving (Jake T. Austin) is a young 10 year old baseball fan whose father Stanley (Mandy Patinkin) works as a custodian at the Yankee Stadium. While the two are on the premises, a thief (disguised as a security guard) steals Babe Ruth's famous bat Darlin' (Whoopi Goldberg) to which Stanley is falsely blamed and is temporarily dismissed until Darlin' can be found. An irate Stanley foolishly accuses Yankee for stealing it, sends him to his room and setting him up, which he would regret later on. The real thief is Lefty Maginnis (William H. Macy), a cheating pitcher for the Chicago Cubs who works for the Cubs' general manager Napoleon Cross (Robin Williams), who desires to see the Cubs defeat the New York Yankees during the 1932 World Series. Determined to reclaim the bat and save his family from being evicted & being out on the streets, Yankee journeys across the country to Chicago where the next World Series' games will be held. After getting the bat back, Yankee decides to return it to Babe Ruth and thereby clear his father's name. Darlin' and her counterpart Screwie (Rob Reiner), a baseball, are able to speak during this. Lefty attempts to steal back the bat from Yankee, but to no avail. On the way, Yankee meets others who help him in his quest such as hobos Andy, Louis and Jack (Richard Kind, Ed Helms & Ron Tippe respectively), an African American girl named Marti Brewster (Raven-Symoné), her baseball pitcher father Lonnie Brewster (Forest Whitaker) and Babe Ruth (Brian Dennehy) himself. A series of improbable coincidences allows Yankee himself to play for the Yankees, resulting in the archetypal inside the park home run (technically, a series of errors after an infield pop-up that allows him to round the bases). This restores the morale of the Yankees, who score 7 more runs to take the lead and win the World Series. Cross tries to talk Babe Ruth out of accepting the victory, saying that Yankee is too young to be a counting player. This leads to the arrest of Cross, who simply says that he was a fan that cheated. When his involvement is revealed, Lefty is kicked off the team and also arrested. Stanley is cleared and officially reinstated as the stadium's custodian. Yankee, his parents and his new baseball friends, Screwie and Darlin, celebrate the Yankee’s World Series win in a victory parade. 

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In a search for power, a short evil genius called Erwin has found a way to suck raw energy out of the world of the Ghosts (the Spectral Realm). He has created a syphon that can penetrate into the Spectral Realm. This is causing the Spectral Realm to collapse into the real world (Pac-Land), bringing about an environmental catastrophe. Meanwhile, Pac-Man is celebrating his 25th birthday with his family when he is teleported by Orson, a former nemesis of Pac-Man from the original Pac-Man World. Orson communicates to him and tells him about the Spectral Realm (after Pac-Man complains to Orson about messing up his party and throwing him into a trash pit). Pac-Man is attacked by fiery Spectral monsters of the orange, green, and purple varieties which have been driven mad by Erwin's hypnosis with Inky and Blinky (Clyde) have been kidnapped as part of Erwin's evil scheme, but Pinky and Clyde (Blinky) managed to escape. Now Pac-Man must join forces with the ghosts, Orson, Pinky, and Clyde (Blinky) to stop Erwin before he destroys both the Real World and the Spectral Realm. 

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The aptly-titled Curtain Raiser is set in the bar of a dance hall where a grim woman and an overweight former dance instructor connect. The grim woman attempts to deflect any advances by the man, telling him that when dancing she can only lead. In response, he teaches her how to improve her technique as she leads. Giving Up Smoking introduces us to Joanne, a lonely, middle-aged woman waiting to hear from Mel, her date for that evening. We are also introduced to Joanne's best friend Sherman, a lonely, middle-aged gay man waiting to hear from potential new boyfriend Gavin and Sherman's cancer-ridden but brightly optimistic mother Kathleen. One further introduction includes the guitar-strumming Mel, whose policy is to dump a woman before she becomes emotionally demanding. The four characters discuss hopes and dreams, reminiscing about happier days in monologues that each character delivers from a separate area of the stage. In Swing Time, Mitzi and her husband Darryl are preparing for the imminent arrival of old friends Gail and Ron. The nature of the evening is revealed when highly-strung Mitzi bemoans the fact her bra and panties don't match. The two couples are slowly easing themselves into the intended purpose of the evening when the phone rings and Mitzi refers to "the private line". Her friends' indignation at not being given the number, and Mitzi's increasingly complicated reasons why they weren't given said number, disrupt the evening's plans in May's typically comic fashion. 

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Cookbook author Bess Lapin and her husband Jeffrey live in the Hamptons with their 3 adopted children. Jeffrey, newly retired is also writing a book about the connection between business and art. Two of the children return from a European trip and the family gathers for a reunion. Neighbors Elaine and her mother-in-law Sadie crash the welcome-home party. The returned children announce that they are planning to get married. Hirschorn, Joel. "Review at the South Coast Repertory Variety, April 10, 2005 

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It is the beginning of the industrial revolution, and feudal Japan is in turmoil. The ruling Shogun are wielding their abusive powers to instill fear and dominance over their oppressed subjects. Beatings, imprisonment, rape and even murder are the adopted tactics chosen to maintain their reign. The bloodshed must end. A group of Samurai have banded together, and, with the development of new weapons and new technology, they have both the will and the hardware to stand up and fight. Ichimatsu is one of these fighters. By day, he works incognito at a local tavern, in the evenings he frequents the brothels, and by the dark of night, he doles out some big-time, gun-barrel justice. He is here to help. He is Samurai Gun. 

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The year is 1840. The Emperor of China warns the young Queen Victoria to know her place - "The Emperor's Greeting". The scene is set, panto-style, in a quaint, cardboard English village, "Dunroamin-on-the-Down", ancestral home of Sir Richard (Dick) Whittington and his widowed mother Lady Dodo. Dick sets off with his manservant Jack Idle and the men of the village to seek their fortune in London or in the new towns of the Industrial Revolution. Jack is sad to leave his girlfriend, Sally. His horse Randy and her mare Cherry also fancy each other and have to be rebuked for their friskiness - "Whoa, Boy". Lady Dodo pines for the good old days, but Dick believes the age of gold is yet to come. Sally, left with her mare, sings of her confusion. She likes Jack but pines for Sir Richard, who is also her legal guardian. Secretly, she and Dodo take off on their own for London. In the City, Dick encounters Obadiah Upward, an up-and-coming merchant, who explains how their fortunes can be made in distant China from the sale of poppies. Dodo and Sally arrive and they agree to make the journey. They sail to India, and, in the poppy fields, Dodo tells Upward why she loves him - "Nostalgie de la Boue". Dick and Jack reflect on British India, the East India Company and the Battle of Plassey in a Kipling- esque ballad - "John Companee" En route for China aboard one of Upward's opium clippers, Dick persuades Jack and Sally to sample their wares, and they savour a pipe dream of paradise. The Emperor of China tells Victoria to stop the cultivation of poppies, but she replies that the "Bounty of the Earth" is to be shared by every nation. She leaves him alone to lament his son's addiction to the drug. He sends Commissioner Lin to Canton to stamp out the trade. Here, Lin meets Viceroy Teng and his daughter Yoyo who is confused by Europeans - "They All Look the Same To Us". Obadiah refuses to be intimidated by Lin's threats and sends Dick up the coast to seek fresh markets. Victoria joins his crew as an interpreter and Christian missionary and is questioned on her religious scruples. She explains there is a blessed trinity that justifies trade - "Blessed Trinity" (of Civilisation, Commerce and Christianity). Before they leave, Dodo guesses that Sally loves Dick and tells her he is not only her guardian but also her half-brother. The Chinese lay siege to the European compound, and the animals have to be slaughtered for food. Jack sings Randy a last lullaby before killing him - "Rock-A-Bye Randy" In the war that follows, the Chinese are defeated and surrender Hong Kong Island. Dodo and Upward sing of how the British and French soldiers sacked the Imperial Summer Palace in Peking - "Rat-a-Tat-Tat". Though there are dark and savage undertones to this fairy tale, in the end, most of the British live happily ever after, and it is the Chinese who learn to know their place. 

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The story takes place in the south of France, against the backdrop of the French Revolution, Napoleon's rise to power, and the French-English rivalry in the Mediterranean. Peyrol (a master-gunner in the French republican navy, pirate, and for nearly fifty years "rover of the outer seas") attempts to find refuge in an isolated farmhouse (Escampobar) on the Giens Peninsula near Hyères. The story is about Peyrol's attempt at withdrawal from an action- and blood-filled life; his involvement with the pariahs of Escampobar; the struggle for his identity and allegiance, which is resolved in his last voyage. 

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Michael Newman, an architect, is married to Donna and has two children, Ben and Samantha. Michael is bullied by his overbearing boss, John Ammer, and often chooses work over family. Michael visits the retail store Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a universal remote control. He stumbles around the various departments before falling asleep. Upon waking, a man named Morty offers Michael a free remote but warns it can never be returned. Learning to use the remote, Michael finds that it can control reality much like a television. He uses it to his advantage at work but also uses it to fast- forward past illness or use "picture-in-picture", concentrating on a baseball game while Donna nags him. Morty tells Michael that during these times, his body is on "auto-pilot", going through his motions of everyday life while his mind skips ahead. Michael is unable to buy bicycles for his children, but knowing that Ammer plans to promote him to a partnership, he uses the remote to skip to the promotion. He is shocked to find that a year has passed. During that time, he and Donna have entered marriage counseling, his children have grown out of their desire for bicycles, and the family dog has died. The remote, having learned his preferences, starts time-skipping in response to casual wishes Michael makes. Michael attempts to discard or destroy the remote, but it reappears after each attempt, and Morty refuses to take it back. At work, Ammer tells Michael he plans on retiring, which would make Michael the new head of the International Division. When Michael presses the subject of his promotion, Ammer tells him that, in time, he could be promoted to CEO, which causes the remote to instantly fast-forward ten years into the future. While Michael is wealthy, he has become morbidly obese and Donna has divorced him. He returns home to find Ben and Samantha have both become moody teenagers. He argues with Donna and new husband Bill, which causes their family dog to jump on Michael, knocking him into a coma. The remote time-skips six years to when Michael wakes, no longer obese, having undergone liposuction to save his life as a part of his cancer treatment and subsequent heart attack. A full-grown Ben is now a partner at the firm. However, Michael learns his father Ted has died of old age. While Michael is mourning his father, Morty reappears. Michael uses the remote to go to Ted's deathbed, but it fails. Morty explains the remote only replays events in his life where he was present, and his father's last hour was not one of them. Michael uses the remote to see when he last saw his father, when Michael rebuffed his father's offer to take him and Ben out to dinner. Michael visits his father's grave. Morty appears and reveals to Michael that he is the Angel of Death. Overcome with guilt and shame, Michael asks to go to a "good place", whereupon the remote fast-forwards him several more years in the future to Ben's wedding. Michael has a second heart attack when Samantha calls Bill her dad. When he wakes in the hospital later that night, he finds his family there, including Ben. Ben skipped his honeymoon to help fix issues with the firm. Michael, fearing that his son will make the same mistakes he made, implores him not to ignore his wife, but a nurse makes Ben and Samantha leave. Michael gathers his last bit of strength to follow them out of the hospital. He collapses and his family rushes to his aid. Michael tells Ben to always put family first and assures his family that he still loves them. He dies and Morty arrives to take Michael. Michael wakes in Bed Bath & Beyond and assumes that he was dreaming. He races to his family to make up for the mistakes he made with the remote and promises to spend the 4th of July with them. He finds the remote on the counter with a note from Morty, reading "Good guys need a break". Michael considers what to do for a moment before throwing the remote in the trash, and is overjoyed when it does not reappear. 

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Henry Pollicut, a corrupt Utahn banker and justice of the peace, has a man named Gordon and his wife murdered by two bounty killers. To prevent Gordon's son from giving them away, one of the killers slices the boy's throat, rendering him permanently mute. Years later, in 1898, a severe blizzard has swept the frontier, bringing privation to the town of Snow Hill. As a result, much of the community is forced to steal in order to survive. Pollicut, seeking to make a profit, places prices on the thieves' heads, attracting the attention of a bounty killer gang led by "Loco". As they prey on the outlaws, Gordon's son, now going by the moniker "Silence", works with the bandits and their allies to fight against the killers. Silence operates on a principle whereby he provokes his enemies into drawing their weapons first so he can kill them in self-defense with his Mauser C96. One of the outlaws, James Middleton, leaves the safety of the group to be with his wife, Pauline. James is subsequently killed by Loco when he takes Pauline hostage. Vengeful, Pauline writes to Silence, requesting him to kill Loco. Meanwhile, the newly- elected Governor, hoping to have order maintained before declaring an amnesty regarding the outlaws, assigns the righteous but bumbling soldier Gideon Burnett as the sheriff of Snow Hill. On his way, Burnett encounters the outlaws, who steal his horse for food. After getting lost in the snow, he finds a stagecoach travelling to Snow Hill, on which he meets Silence, and later, Loco. Upon arrival, Silence meets Pauline, who promises to raise his reward. Pauline attempts to sell her house to Pollicut, who demands that she becomes his mistress – his reason for putting a bounty on her husband. Pauline bitterly refuses. Silence leaves for the town saloon, and attempts to provoke Loco into drawing. Instead, Loco savagely beats him before Silence fights back. Angered, Loco attempts to shoot him, but he is stopped by Burnett, who arrests him for attempted murder and prepares to take him to a prison in Tonopah. Before leaving, Burnett requests that the townspeople provide food for the outlaws. Meanwhile, Pauline becomes romantically and sexually involved with Silence while tending his wounds. Burnett and Loco stop by a frozen lake to allow Loco to relieve himself, but he springs a trap, shooting the ice surrounding Burnett and leaving him to die in the freezing water. Loco rides to his hideout and convinces the rest of his gang to confront Silence. Determined to take Pauline by force, Pollicut attempts to rape her as his henchman, Martin, tortures Silence by burning his right hand. Silence overpowers Martin and kills Pollicut. Loco and his gang arrive to look for Silence, just as the outlaws appear at the edge of town to collect the provisions, having been previously advised to do so by Burnett. Deciding to use them to draw out Silence, the gang herds the bandits into the saloon and captures Pauline. Loco tells Pauline to have Silence duel with him – if Silence wins, the outlaws will be set free; if he wins, they will be killed. Despite Pauline's pleas that the duel is a trap, Silence stands outside the saloon. A killer shoots his left hand, greatly impairing his speed and marksmanship. Loco then stands in the doorway, ready to face the weakened Silence. As Silence begins reaching for his Mauser, Loco reaches for his Colt Single Action Army – but as Silence draws, another wounding shot is fired. Loco fires at Silence's head, killing him. Distraught, Pauline attempts to shoot Loco herself, but swiftly dies as well. The bounty killers turn their guns on the outlaws, massacring the entire group. As Loco and his men prepare to collect their bounties, he takes Silence's Mauser from Pauline's hands. The killers ride out of Snow Hill into the morning sun. A title card explains that Loco's actions resulted in widespread public condemnation of bounty killing, and a memorial was erected in Snow Hill to honor those who died by his greed. 

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The story tells of a prince who wants to marry a princess but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. Something is always wrong with those he meets and he cannot be certain they are real princesses because they have bad table manners or they are not his type. One stormy night a young woman drenched with rain seeks shelter in the prince's castle. She claims to be a princess, so the prince's mother decides to test their unexpected, unwitting guest by placing a pea in the bed she is offered for the night, covered by huge mattresses and 20 feather-beds. In the morning, the guest tells her hosts that she endured a sleepless night, kept awake by something hard in the bed that she is certain has bruised her. With the proof of her bruised back, the princess passes the test and the prince rejoices. A huge wedding takes place in the palace. The prince couldn't believe that he found his true princess. Only a real princess would have the sensitivity to feel a pea through such a quantity of bedding, so the two are married. The story ends with the pea being placed in a museum, where according to the story it can still be seen today unless someone has removed it. 

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The story follows a Thranx, Ryozenzuzex (i.e. Ryo, of Family Zen, clan Zu, Hive Zex) who came from an odd-numbered hatching (thranx offspring almost always come in multiples of two) immediately making him somewhat different from his brethren. Setting himself aside as different Ryo decides that he has to know what is the secret of the new space-faring race that supposedly wear "their skeletons inside". To accomplish this un-thranxlike task, Ryo travels from his home planet, Willow-Wane, to the ice caps of the Thranx home world, Hivehom with the aid of the wealthy Wuuzelansem, a poet in search of inspiration. Once on Hivehom he is confronted with the "monsters" and comes to the conclusion that they must set them free, believing that an alliance between Thranx and these so-called "humans" is the only way to stop the aggressive advances of the AAnn Empire. Thranx military and scientists, by studying the contained humans tendency to fight amongst each other came to the conclusion that the entire species could be insane and would destroy Thranx society if they were to attempt any further contact. Ryo, after spending a good amount of time with the humans, decides to aid in their escape from Hivehom. Once they escape, they return to a human research station where the reaction to Ryo is worse than anticipated. When the scientists there decide to kill and dissect Ryo the crew he rescued from Hivehom returns the favor and helps him escape his death sentence. It is at this point Ryo and the crew come to the conclusion that they must start a long-term program in order to properly integrate human and thranx society. With the scientists he befriended on Hivehom, Ryo brings a group of human children and researchers to interact with a group of Thranx larvae on his home of Willow-Wane in an attempt to build lasting race relations. The larvae and human children seem to get along well and the compatibility between the two races is confirmed. When an AAnn raiding party attacks Ryo's hive, the militant humans take action which results in a formal first contact between both human and Thranx governments. By his risky actions, Ryo plants the seeds of what would become the Humanx Commonwealth. 

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Alfred Redl, a Ruthenian boy from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, wins an appointment to a prestigious military academy in spite of being the son of a mere peasant farmer. At his departure from home, his mother instils in him eternal gratitude towards the Emperor Franz Josef. Redl is never to forget that he owes his promising career to the Emperor. At the military academy, the young Redl soon stands out for his talent, drive and loyalty to the Crown. One of his teachers forces him to inform on Kristof Kubinyi, a student who is the subject of a practical joke; whilst he blames himself for incriminating his comrade, Alfred soon realises that to rise in the ranks he must overcome his peasant background by ingratiating himself with his superiors. Alfred and Kristof become firm friends. Kubinyi invites Redl home for the holidays to the elegant residence of his parents, who lead a life of privilege and nobility in Hungary. There, Alfred meets Kristof's pretty sister, Katalin, who welcomes him warmly. To Kubinyi's aristocratic parents, Redl hides his true humble background, pretending to be of Hungarian ancestry and a member from an old family who lost all its fortune. Redl and Kubinyi slowly climb the ladder as career officers. Once they become adults, the two friends have different political ideals. As a Hungarian, Kubinyi slowly falls prey to the national aspirations of a Hungary free from Habsburg rule, while Redl remains fiercely patriotic and faithful to his benefactor, the Austrian Emperor. For Redl, his relationship with Kubinyi goes beyond friendship as Redl harbors an unrequited love for his comrade. When the two young men visit a brothel, Redl seems more interested in watching his friend having sex than in engaging a woman in his own room. Redl suppresses his attraction to Kristof, however, and transfers it, as best as he can, to Katalin, his friend's beautiful sister. Back at the academy, Alfred serves as a second in a duel between Kristof and another classmate, who is killed in the contest. This foolishness jeopardizes the careers of both Kubinyi and Redl, but the commanding officer, Colonel von Roden, having noted Redl's hard work and loyalty to the Emperor, arranges a promotion for him and a prized assignment in Vienna. In Vienna, Redl is able to renew his friendship with Katalin, who is, by then, unhappily married. They become lovers in spite of Katalin knowing well that it is her brother who Alfred really loves. Redl is assigned to a garrison serving on the Russian border. The discipline there is lax and Redl readily stands out as a serious- minded young officer. When the district commander decides to retire, Redl is recommended for the job. As commanding officer, he proves very demanding, working hard to reinvigorate the discipline of his outfit. This does not sit well with the junior officers, including Kristof, especially because they feel superior to Redl by birth. When Redl and Kristof have a falling out over Kristof's sloppy habits and poor performance, Kristof mocks Redl's lowly origins in conversation with other officers. Colonel von Roden intervenes on Redl's behalf again, bringing him back to Vienna to serve as deputy chief of the counter-espionage branch of the Evidenzbureau. It's a nasty kind of job, since it entails spying on officers throughout the service, trying to identify those engaging in espionage activities for the Russians. On Katalin's suggestion, Redl undertakes a loveless marriage of convenience in order to quell rumors of his homosexual proclivities. His wife, Clarissa, suffers from ill health and remains a distant figure in his life. Redl's single-minded devotion to duty draws him into the orbit of the heir to the crown, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who is a ruthless schemer (whose ultimate objective is portrayed as to overthrow the Emperor in a coup d'état). Redl participates in one of the Archduke's plots, which involves setting up an aging Ukrainian officer for a dramatic fall so as to shake the army out of its complacency. The man is accidentally shot to death, however, during the search and seizure, negating the value of the plan. The Archduke then decides to make Redl the fall guy instead. Redl contributes to his own downfall by allowing himself to be seduced by an Italian officer. Redl is now doomed. Under arrest, he is given a service pistol with which to take his own life. It falls upon Kristof to provide Redl with the gun and order him to commit suicide. After experiencing anger, hesitation and despair, Redl finally shoots himself. The film ends with a brief depiction of the notorious assassination of the Archduke, at Sarajevo, and the resulting chain of events leading to World War I. However since the assassination (June 1914) happened a year after the suicide of the real Redl (May 1913), it is a stretch for the film to make any direct link between this fictional plot and the beginning of WW1. 

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Oswald is preparing a trolley (tram) to transport his bunny kids and other animal characters, but there are some obstacles. One is a cow who walks onto the tracks and refuses to move until Oswald drives the trolley underneath her. Oswald thinks that all is well until the hill gets steep. Oswald uses a goat to get the trolley up the hill, then down the hill. The trolley unexpectedly goes onto a bumpy road, tossing the kids out of the trolley. Oswald prays that he'll live, takes off his foot, and rubs it on his head (as per the saying that a rabbit's foot gives you good luck). Eventually, the trolley crashes into a river and becomes a raft. Oswald uses a big stick to row it downstream. 

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Johnny Kapahaala, a boy living in Hawaii, is a surfer who has good friends and a happy family, including parents Pete and Melanie, and his paternal grandfather, the famous surf legend Johnny Bartholomew Tsunami. When Pete gets a sudden job transfer, the family is forced to move to Vermont, while Tsunami stays in Hawaii. In Kapahaala's new town, there are two schools: a private school where the students are skiers known as Skies; and the public school where the students are snowboarders known as Urchins. Johnny goes to the skiers' school, but would prefer to snowboard because he thinks it is more like surfing. After some difficulty, Johnny eventually learns how to snowboard with help from a new friend named Sam Sterling. At his new school, Johnny becomes good friends with a girl named Emily, who is Headmaster Pritchard's daughter. However, a skier named Brett likes Emily too and thinks Johnny is not right for her. The Urchins ride the side of the mountain that belongs to the skiers and are confronted by the Skies. Later, Emily nearly falls off the mountainside while learning how to snowboard with Johnny and his new friends. A fight ensues between Johnny and Brett regarding the incident, but is immediately dispersed when a snow ranger arrives. After a meeting with his parents and the headmaster concerning the fight with Brett, Sam tells Johnny that he is moving to Iceland, as are his father's orders since he is a first sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps and relocating also means a promotion to sergeant major. Pete tells Johnny that Sam moving away would be best, as he wants Johnny to fit in with his peers at private school. A fight occurs between Johnny and Pete. Johnny wishes his grandfather were there because he understands him better than Pete; however, Pete feels that Johnny Tsunami – a surf bum – is a bad influence on his son. Johnny and Sam run away from home and fly to Hawaii on a cargo plane to stay with Tsunami. Via telephone, Pete demands the boys be sent home immediately, but Tsunami refuses until they are willing to return. Melanie tells Pete her feelings about him unnecessarily punishing Johnny and tells him he needs to stop forbidding Johnny from his friends and let him snowboard. Pete tries unsuccessfully to defend his actions with Melanie, who reveals that she wishes that he could be the easy-going husband that she once loved, before he became the way he is. Johnny and Sam enjoy surfing and the warm weather in Hawaii, but they decide to return to Vermont along with Tsunami. Pete is shocked to see his father in Vermont, and the two have a heart-to-heart talk about Pete's punishment in forbidding his son from snowboarding with his friends. Pete admits he went too far in punishing Johnny. Tsunami encourages Pete to go easy on Johnny and let him make his own mistakes so he can learn from them. Tsunami tells Pete the more he tries to punish Johnny, the more resentful he will be towards his father later in life. The next day, Johnny is amazed to learn Tsunami has great snowboarding ability, and they decide to ride the skiers' side of the mountain, where the best rides are. Brett and his gang encounter Johnny and Tsunami, and decide to have a one-race challenge between Brett and Johnny Kapahaala. If Johnny wins the race, then the skiers must share the mountain with the snowboarders. If Brett wins, then he is awarded the Tsunami Medal, a prize given to the best surfer in Hawaii. Pete encourages Johnny to win the race to keep the medal in the family. He wins the race, despite Brett's cheating attempts, allowing him and Emily to begin a relationship. Brett's friends congratulate Johnny and are inspired to learn how to snowboard with the Urchins. Johnny's parents throw a celebration party. Brothers Randy and Ronnie, who own the opposite sides of the mountain, reveal their story as they were the original Sky and Urchin. Their parents divorced long ago and they could not agree on what should happen when they inherited the mountain after their father died 10 years earlier. The mountain was split between the two, with the Skies having the best rides. Randy and Ronnie decide to reunite the mountain and open a new shop which allows everyone access to the best slopes. The brothers thank Johnny for helping them see the error of their ways. 

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Jack Morgan is a dog therapist, once famous for being able to read his dog's mind. Although Jack cannot read the minds of other dogs, he still operates a canine mind-reading business, without divulging his inability to customers. Mr. Mooney and his wife bring their dog to see Jack. Dissatisfied with Jack's inability to read his dog's mind, Mr. Mooney, who is a friend of the city mayor, threatens to have his business closed down. After the Mooneys leave, a wealthy man named Clyde Windsor brings his dog, Lucky, to see Jack, who is stunned by his ability to read the dog's mind. He seems worried by this fact and ends the session early. Before Windsor leaves, Jack informs him that Lucky is bothered by three individuals that live with him. Two weeks later, the city closes down Jack's business. Simultaneously, Windsor's personal driver, Calvin Bridges, informs Jack that Windsor has died. Windsor's lawyer, Allison Kent, reads Windsor's will to his niece and two nephews: Margaret, Lyle, and Rueben. The will reveals that the three individuals receive next to nothing from the estate of Windsor, who chose Lucky to inherit his money and mansion. Jack meets with Allison and is informed that he is Windsor's chosen trustee for Lucky's $64 million trust fund. Jack agrees to move into the mansion and become Lucky's new owner, as required by the trust fund, thus forcing Lyle, Margaret and Rueben to move out. Windsor's relatives meet with Mr. Phister, a greedy lawyer who will only take the case to trial for 30 percent of the money in their uncle's trust fund. Windsor's relatives, who are used to living a luxurious lifestyle, instead plot to regain the mansion and to become the trustees of the trust fund on their own. One night, Jack begins acting like a dog after Lucky becomes overly excited about dog bones he had buried in the mansion's backyard. Jack joins Lucky in his search for bones, and later tears up furniture with Lucky, scaring away the mansion's two maids with his dog- like behavior. The morning after this incident, Jack explains to Calvin that when Lucky becomes too excited, he takes over Jack´s body and Jack ¨becomes¨ Lucky. Later that day, to help Lucky get over the death of his owner, Jack and Calvin take him to a local shopping mall. At the mall's pet store, Jack signs additional paperwork for Allison and also meets her daughter, Nicole, who wants to buy a puppy. However, Allison tells her daughter that their apartment is not a suitable living environment for a puppy. In the mall's food court, Lucky becomes excited at the scent of food. Jack's mind once again transforms into that of Lucky’s. Jack and Lucky devour leftover food on tables and inside a trash bin. After numerous failed attempts, Windsor's relatives agree to Phister's expensive offer to take the case to trial and have Jack declared mentally incompetent. At the courthouse, Jack demonstrates his connection to Lucky by getting him excited and demonstrating that when Lucky controls his body, he can identify objects that he cannot see, but Lucky can. Jack discovers through Lucky's thoughts that Lyle likely poisoned his uncle. Lyle threatens the courtroom with a gun after Jack accuses him of murdering his uncle. Lucky knocks Lyle over, and he is arrested along with Margaret and Rueben. At the mansion, Jack reveals to Allison and her daughter that he purchased all of the dogs at the mall's pet store, at Lucky's request. Among the dogs that will live at the mansion is a puppy for Nicole and a female companion for Lucky. 

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The platoon arrest a suspect agent, who insists on being a British citizen, despite his accent, and the fact that he has a dog called Fritz. He attempts to help them put out a fire in the church hall, and is then found to be Warden Hodges' uncle. He comments that he doesn't know how Britain will win the war, and Wilson agrees. 

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Professor Challenger, a big burly man, is arguing with people who are persistently calling him on the telephone when his young friend Malone, a reporter for The Daily Gazette, enters and requests Challenger accompany him to inspect the discovery of Theodore Nemor, who claims to have invented a machine capable of disintegrating objects. Skeptical of the invention, Challenger accepts Malone's proposal and accompanies him to the house of Nemor. At first Nemor offers to disintegrate Challenger and put him back together to demonstrate the machine, but Malone convinces Challenger that should the machine fail to restore him, his scientific work would go unfinished, and thus Malone nominates himself to be disintegrated. Malone is successfully disintegrated and put back together and Challenger then undergoes the same treatment. As punishment for Challenger's lack of faith in the invention and lack of courtesy to Nemor, the inventor restores the professor without any hair. In a fury, Challenger assaults Nemor, throws him to the floor and threatens his life should he not restore the professor to his previous state. Nemor restores Challenger's hair and Challenger congratulates him on his machine and inquires as to its practical application. Nemor boasts that in the hands of the Russians, who were the highest bidder for the rights to the invention, London and its millions of inhabitants could be destroyed. After ascertaining whether any others know the secret of the machine, Challenger inspects it. Challenger claims that a small amount of electricity is leaking from the chair on which he sat when he was disintegrated. Nemor refutes this and sits himself in the chair in an attempt to feel this electricity. Challenger then disintegrates him and, considering it is for the greater good, he and Malone leave without restoring Nemor. 

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Arctic prospector Jack McCann (Gene Hackman), after 15 years of solitary searching, becomes one of the world's wealthiest men when he literally falls into a mountain of gold in 1925. Twenty years later in 1945, he lives in luxury on a Caribbean island that he owns. But his wealth brings him no peace of mind as he copes with Helen (Jane Lapotaire), his bored, alcoholic wife; Tracy (Theresa Russell), his headstrong daughter who has married Claude Van Horn (Rutger Hauer) a dissolute, philandering social-climber; his paranoid assistant Charles Perkins (Ed Lauter); and Miami mobsters led by Aurelio D'Amato (Mickey Rourke) sent by Mayakofsky (Joe Pesci), who want his island to build a casino. His life is entangled with the obsessions of those around him with greed, power, and debauchery against a background of occult symbolism. When Jack is brutally murdered by unseen mob associates, his son-in-law, Claude, is arrested for the crime and put on trial, which takes place during most of the second part of the film. With circumstantial evidence and due to Jack's long list of enemies, the prosecution fails to prove its case against Claude, and he is acquitted. Claude leaves the island with Tracy shortly thereafter, and Jack McCann's murder remains unsolved. 

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The Forest of Doom is a fantasy scenario in which the hero undertakes a quest through a perilous forest to find the missing pieces of a magic warhammer that can help the dwarves in their war with the trolls. 

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The show centers around Vivienne Keill (Saunders) and Jackie Riviera (Joanna Lumley), two aging stage actresses who live in vertically adjacent flats. The two are of questionable talent, and their careers seem to be at a standstill. During the course of the pilot, Vivienne has the opportunity to be cast in a new show but delivers a horrifying rendition of the standard "Send in the Clowns", thanks in part to Jackie's off-kilter advice. Julia Sawalha plays Freda Keill, Vivienne's younger sister and a more serious (and successful) actress. Jane Horrocks plays Yitta Hilberstam, a vicious Icelandic actress/waitress. June Whitfield appears as Dora Vermouth, a former vaudeville actress who spends most of her time intoxicated at the local pub and is showing slight signs of dementia. Harriet Thorpe plays Cat Rogers, an actress who is busy understudying multiple roles. 

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As a 1917 graduate of the Naval Academy, Naval Aviator Jonathan L. "Scotty" Scott (Gary Cooper) spends 28 years, from 1921 to 1949, promoting U.S. naval aviation and the power of the aircraft carrier. During that period, he antagonizes powerful people in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Congress, and marries Mary Morgan (Jane Wyatt), the widow of a fellow flier who died in a crash during a carrier takeoff aboard USS Langley. Throughout, Scott has the help and friendship of his mentor and superior officer, Pete Richard (Walter Brennan). The Scotts spend two years in Hawaii and then move to Annapolis, where Scott, now a lieutenant commander, is to teach naval aviation but his outspoken stand in favor of aircraft carriers in combat causes him to lose a promotion. After Japan invades Manchuria, Scott is offered a civilian sales position selling aircraft in Europe, but remains in the Navy. After Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, Scott's ship, , is heavily involved in action at the Battle of Midway. Scott later travels to Washington D.C. to plead for more carriers and eventually a carrier fleet is produced. During the Battle of Okinawa, the fleet, with Scott as the captain of the carrier , proves its worth. When his carrier flight deck is badly damaged by Japanese torpedo aircraft, the ship is forced to withdraw to the U.S. for repairs and the war ends when they arrive in at the Navy Yard in New York City. Four years after the end of the war, Scott, as a rear admiral, retires and joins Mary, who is waiting for him on the dock. 

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The show begins as the announcer says the magic words to the audience. Barney makes his grand appearance by coming out behind the curtains jumping and dancing around to the theme song with the audience clapping to the tune. Barney sings "Everyone Is Special" as he tells the audience that everyone is special in their own way. As the show continues, Michael, Luci, Amy, Adam, Derek, and Tina come out and introduce themselves to the audience and begin by performing their rap wearing yellow T-shirts with black words for the names, yellow socks, blue shorts, and white shoes as they're down with their hands on the stage and bent knees. During the show, Barney introduces Baby Bop who comes to join in for the rest of the show. The show starts to end as they sing The Grand Old Flag and Barney's favorite song "I Love You." As Barney, Baby Bop, Michael, Luci, Amy, Adam, Derek, and Tina finish the song, the audience bursts out in a round of applause, and then they bow. Barney closes out with blowing kisses at the audience. 

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Barthélémy Bernard, owner of a BMW car dealership, is married to a beautiful woman, Florence, but he falls in love with a very plain-looking woman, Colette, who has been hired as an interim secretary to his store. This relationship will change his life, as much as Schubert's music. 

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In this latest installment of the Fudge Series, Fudge is still five years old and takes up an obsessive and greedy love for money, driving his twelve year old brother Peter insane, and after some talking with his family, they decide to take him to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. for a long weekend to show how it is made, hoping that his obsession would stop there. That plan doesn't work, and instead they meet up with their long-lost cousins, the Howie Hatchers. There is Howie, a park ranger who resides in Hawaii and is traveling the country, his pregnant wife, Eudora, their perfect, slightly overindulged twelve-year- old identical twin daughters, Flora and Fauna, who are sometimes nicknamed the "Natural Beauties" and the "Heavenly Hatchers," and last but not least, three- year-old Farley Drexel Hatcher, which is also Fudge's real name. Peter dubs him "Mini" and the nickname sticks. Peter's family is taken aback when the Howie Hatchers invite themselves to move in with Peter's family for weeks in their Upper West Side apartment. Peter is also having a rough time throughout the story because his best friend, Jimmy Fargo, has left the Upper West Side and moved "far off" to SoHo on the other side of Manhattan, although they still get to go to the same school, where they're both in the seventh grade, while Fudge is in Mixed group, along with his new friend Melissa Beth Miller. Near the end of the story, in a semi-homage to the ending of the first novel, Mini swallows Fudge's baby tooth that just fell out, making him furious at him because he was planning to get a dollar for it from the tooth fairy. After the Howie Hatchers leave with Mini for good, Fudge throws a temper tantrum over what Mini did, saying he hated him. Then Peter tells Fudge that he felt the same way when Fudge swallowed Peter's pet turtle, Dribble, in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Genuinely surprised at this news, Fudge apologizes to Peter for doing so, and finally realizes that he hasn't been a very good brother to him. The paperback edition contains an after-story interview with Judy Blume, who claims she has no definite plans, but may write yet another Fudge story, which, as of August 2020, is something that has not yet come to fruition. 

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Twist's mother dies in childbirth in the middle of nowhere. Fearing blame, the locals bury her in an unmarked grave and drop the baby off at a rural orphanage, where he is named Twist. Growing up in the dusty wastes of the Swartland, sold from orphanage into child labour on the farms, and later to a rural undertaker, Twist finally takes his fate into his own hands and escapes to Cape Town. Wide eyed at the wonders of the city, he falls in with Fagin - an ancient Ethiopian Rastafarian who runs a network of child thieves. His new friend Dodger teaches him the tricks of the trade, but the inexperienced Twist is caught trying to steal from Ebrahim Bassedien. Although neither understand it, there is a strange affinity between this old man - who has lost his daughter - and the young boy who never knew his mother. Bassedien takes the little stroller in and for a moment it seems that the trauma is over - as the little boy encounters love for the first time in his short and brutal life. Enter Monks - the only person who knows Twist's true identity. He is paying Fagin to keep the little boy marginalised. If he ends up in jail or dead on the street, so much the better, for Monks stands to lose his inheritance if anybody ever discovers that Twist is Bassedien's grandson. The brutal gangster Bill Sykes, and his prostitute girlfriend, Nancy, steal Twist back for Fagin, and the struggle for a little boy's soul begins in earnest. 

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On an Arctic flight the crew of a RAF transport aircraft overflies a crashed aircraft. Although a survivor is spotted, the crew realizes that a rescue is not possible and rules out a landing. Rupert Royce (Sam Waterston), a U.S. meteorologist aboard the flight, volunteers to parachute to the ice with first aid supplies to treat the survivor. Bringing supplies with him, Royce lands near the wreckage and finds Averyanov (Aleksandr Potapov), a Soviet navigator, the sole survivor who is injured and unable to be moved. Intending to wait until further help arrives, Royce makes repairs on the shattered aircraft, but soon realizes help is not coming, as the aircraft is far off course. The ice shifts below the wreckage, further complicating their survival. When a blizzard strands the two men and forces them to survive on their own, they have to accept that different cultural backgrounds cannot jeopardize their survival. As supplies run low and a leaking heater nearly kills them, releasing deadly carbon monoxide into their small enclosure, Royce begins to make plans for both of them to find a way to reach civilization, the nearest settlement, 200 miles away. The isolation, ever-present wolves and dwindling supplies leaves Royce little option. Setting out into the wilderness with an improvised sled to carry the injured airman, Averyanov urges Royce to save himself, and not to risk his own life in a vain attempt to save someone who will likely die soon anyway. Royce refuses and strives mightily to save the two "captives" of the wild. 

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Set in the mid-1950s, the story is about the "Wormsley Common Gang", a boys' gang named after the place where they live. The protagonist Trevor, or "T.", devises a plan to destroy a beautiful two- hundred-year-old house that survived The Blitz. The gang accepts the plan by T., their new leader, and executes it when the owner of the house, Mr. Thomas (whom the gang call "Old Misery"), is away during a bank holiday weekend. Their plan is to destroy the house from inside, then tear down the remaining outer structure. Mr. Thomas returns home early, however, and the gang locks him in the outhouse. T. refuses to stop until the destruction job is complete, because even the facade is valuable and could be reused. Inside, they find a mattress filled with money—which they burn. The final destruction of the house occurs when a lorry pulls away a support pole from the side of the house. Mr. Thomas is released from the outhouse by the lorry driver to see the rubble of what once was his home. When the driver finds the situation funny, Mr. Thomas is incensed, but the driver is still unable to stop laughing. 

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Taking place six months after the events in Romancing the Stone, Joan Wilder's (Kathleen Turner) and Jack Colton's (Michael Douglas) romance has grown stale. While moored at a port in the South of France, Joan, suffering writer's block, wants to return to New York, while Jack prefers aimlessly sailing the world on his boat, the Angelina. At a book signing engagement, Joan meets Omar Khalifa (Spiros Focás), a charming Arab ruler who wants Joan to write his biography. Joan accepts and leaves with Omar over Jack's protests. Jack later runs into Ralph (Danny DeVito), the swindler from Jack and Joan's previous adventure in Colombia, who demands Jack turn over the stone Jack and Joan found. Shortly after, an Arab, Tarak (Paul David Magid), informs Jack about Omar's true intentions and claims that Omar has the "Jewel of the Nile"; just as Tarak finishes his explanations, the Angelina explodes from a bomb set by one of Omar's men. Ralph and Jack team up to find Joan and the fabled jewel. Joan soon discovers that Omar is a brutal dictator rather than the enlightened ruler he claimed will unite the Arab world. In the palace jail, Joan encounters Al-Julhara (Avner Eisenberg), a holy man who is, in fact, the "Jewel of the Nile" and whom Omar fears. Al-Julhara tells Joan that Oman plans to declare himself ruler at a ceremony in the city of Kadir. Realizing that Al-Julhara is the only one who can stop Omar, Joan decides to escort him to Kadir herself. The pair escape and find Jack, and they flee into the desert in Omar's hi-jacked F-16 fighter jet. Ralph is captured by Tarak's rebel Sufi tribe who are sworn to protect the Jewel so he can fulfill his people's destiny. After encountering a Nubian mountain African tribe, Joan and Jack's romance is rekindled. Joan tells Jack that the jewel is not a gem stone but Al-Julhara. In Kadir, Omar intends to use a smoke-and-mirror special effect provided by a British rock promoter to convince onlookers that he is the prophet who will unite the Arab world. Jack, Joan, and Al-Julhara arrive to expose Omar but are captured. Omar suspends Jack and Joan with ropes over a deep pit (a scenario taken from Joan's biggest-selling novel, The Savage Secret) while Al-Julhara is in a stockade; Ralph, along with the Sufi tribe, arrives in time to rescue the three prisoners. As Omar takes center stage to address the Arab people, Jack and Joan disrupt the ceremony while the Sufi battle Omar's guards. A fire breaks out, engulfing Omar's stage. Jack and Joan are separated, and Omar corners Joan atop the burning scaffolding. Aided by Ralph using a giant crane, Jack reaches Joan in the nick of time and kicks Omar over the side and down into the flames, killing him. Al-Julhara rises and safely walks through the blazing inferno, fulfilling the prophecy that he is the true spiritual leader. The following day, Jack and Joan are married by Al- Julhara. While Ralph is genuinely happy for Jack and Joan, he laments once again having gained nothing for his efforts, but Tarak acknowledges that he is a true Sufi friend and presents him with a jeweled dagger as Jack and Joan happily sail away down the Nile. 

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Dr. Bloodmoney is set in a post-apocalyptic future. In 1972, before the start of the narrative, Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld (German for "Blood-Money") had led a project testing nuclear weapons as a protectionary measure against Communist China and the Soviet Union. However, a miscalculation caused an atmospheric nuclear accident leading to widespread fallout and mutations. More recently the United States has been involved in a prolonged period of hostilities with China and the Soviet Union erupting in a war in Cuba. In 1981, the now universally hated Bluthgeld seeks psychotherapy with Dr. Stockstill for his paranoia and guilt. Meanwhile, Stuart McConchie, Hoppy Harrington and Jim Fergesson, employees at Modern TV Sales and Service in Berkeley, California, go through a fairly typical day, pausing to watch Walt and Lydia Dangerfield being launched into orbit in the first stage of a colonization mission to Mars. This ordinary day, however, is disrupted by a massive nuclear strike. Orbiting overhead, Walt Dangerfield witnesses the tragic events as they unfold, while other characters are reduced to desperate measures in their struggle for survival. Fergesson is killed as his shop collapses. Meanwhile, Bluthgeld is convinced that he caused the strike in response to a universal conspiracy against him. Believing that he has shown the world his power, he sets out to heal and restore order through his imagined magical powers. The narrative jumps to 1988, when many communities have begun to rebuild a sort of order. A military government has arisen in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while in California government is by local community councils that view one another with varying degrees of hostility. Most pre-war technologies and amenities have been lost. Oil shortages result in disabled cars being pulled by horses or fitted with wood-burning (steam) engines. Former California ranch territory has been converted into agricultural land for corn and other crops. Human mutants have become more common, such as phocomeli, as well as conjoined symbiotes. At the same time, former domestic animals like dogs and cats have undergone mutations that have greatly enhanced their intelligence. Many of these former pets and zoo specimens have allied themselves into ferocious tribal units of their own. Bruno Bluthgeld's dog Terry is capable of imitating simple human speech, while some species of felines may have developed their own evolved languages. Walt Dangerfield, supplied with enough rations to last him for at least several more years, as well as a vast treasury of books and musical recordings, has become a disc jockey in orbit. His broadcasts help provide some sense of continuity with pre-war civilization in the isolated settlements that comprise the postwar world. His wife Lydia committed suicide at some point during the intervening period. Dangerfield has begun to experience symptoms of an unknown medical condition, causing some of his listeners to worry. In Marin County survivors including Bonny Keller, Dr. Stockstill, June Raub and Hoppy Harrington have organized into a self-governing community. Harrington, a Thalidomide baby missing all four of his limbs, harbors a quietly smoldering resentment of the patronizing and condescending attitudes he endured before the war. He has now become a successful mechanic thanks to electronic servo- mechanism technology as well as his gradually increasing abilities of psychokinesis or mind-over-matter. As such, he becomes a genuinely respected and absolutely indispensable member of the community. His ultimate goal, however, is to dominate and humiliate the people within his community through intimidation via his increasingly capricious and violent misuse of his ever- strengthening powers. He's been using his talents to gradually weaken Walt Dangerfield in order to take over Dangerfield's much-beloved satellite transmissions. Meanwhile, Bluthgeld, under the assumed name of Jack Tree, lives as a sheep farmer outside the community. One outsider searching for the infamous Bluthgeld was exposed by Bonny Keller and summarily executed for his troubles. Stuart McConchie has become a travelling entrepreneur in the post- apocalyptic world, selling "smart" robotic rat traps for a company based in post-war Berkeley. Still holding onto his ambitious pre-war salesman's mentality, McConchie travels to Marin County to meet Andrew Gill, a cigarette and alcohol entrepreneur, to discuss the re-introduction of automation within his factory as an agent of Berkeley-based business interests. His appearance in West Marin startles Hoppy Harrington and Bruno Bluthgeld, both of whom had last seen McConchie on the day of the "Emergency". Bluthgeld's increasing psychosis eventually leads to the discovery of his identity. His magical powers, however, do not appear to be entirely imaginary. In his ardent desire to silence the talking satellite he seems to initiate another series of atmospheric explosions merely by willing them to occur. Hoppy, viewing him as a potential rival as well as a direct threat to the community and the planet itself, kills him from several miles away. Harrington employs his own psychokinetic powers in flinging the mad scientist high into the air and then simply letting him fall back to the ground. The Marin County council decides to thank Hoppy by presenting him with gifts of Gill's tobacco, alcohol and a monument in Harrington's honor, but Hoppy scorns these gifts as being much less than he deserves. Bonny Keller begins to worry that Hoppy will set himself up as a vindictive little tin god, and so she flees the county with Gill and McConchie in hopes of eventually settling beyond the reach of his powers. Meanwhile, Edie Keller's conjoined twin brother Bill, a sentient fetus within her body, has been yearning for an independent existence. Bill Keller is able to communicate telepathically with the dead, and they warn him how dangerous Hoppy is becoming. When Edie approaches Hoppy's house, Harrington uses his powers to draw Bill outside of her in hopes of causing him to perish. Little Bill has a near-lethal adventure inside of an owl before finally engineering a body-swap with Hoppy which quickly proves fatal to Harrington. The idol with feet of clay has finally been toppled. At the conclusion of the book, Dr. Stockstill begins a course of psychotherapy, broadcast over the radio, with Walt Dangerfield, who seems to be slowly recovering from his illness in the absence of a jealous Hoppy Harrington's debilitating mental emanations. 

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The Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) is assigned to diplomatic duty to host the wedding between two houses of the Tizarin, a race that lives only in space and engages in commerce. One of the guests is Lwaxana Troi, to represent Betazed. The time setting places it after the events of "Deja Q" (third season) and before "Q-Pid" (fourth season). Kerin, heir to the house of Nistral, will marry Sehra, the daughter of the house of Graziunas. Q puts in an appearance. Although he toys with Picard while asking to be allowed to attend the wedding festivities, he promises to behave himself. Q attracts Lwaxana's notice, and she is fascinated by Q. To Picard's horror, Q fans the flames of love. Later, Q also begins to fan the animosity between the two Tizarin houses, mainly by feeding on the occasional blowups between the bride and groom, who are themselves irritated: Sehra by her future father-in-law Nistral's comments and Kerin by his future mother-in- law Mrs. Graziunas' comments. The two families come to battle, and a despairing Lwaxana wishes she could do something. Q gives her power, and Lwaxana stops the battle, and Kerin and Serah determine they will marry, no matter what. Meanwhile, Q has revealed his true colors: another way of annoying lower life forms. He scorns Lwaxana, who gives Q a serious thrashing. Meanwhile, a gift of gratitude by Sehra to Wesley Crusher turns out to be anything but a joy, as Sehra gives Wesley a clumsy slave girl. After much pain and a broken rib, Wesley returns the slave girl to Sehra, who had been trying to get rid of her but is now happy to have her back. 

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Alan Richards and his wife Doris have recently returned from Africa, where Alan's company is constructing a hydroelectric dam. He discovers she has secretly kept several items given to her by a local shaman for protection. When he confronts her about them, she says she is frightened by the natives opposed to the dam and begs him to stop construction. He dismisses her pleas and opens the door to leave for work. In the hallway of his apartment building, just outside his door, is the carcass of a dead goat. Alan attends a board meeting, where they discuss the dam and the fact that, although the natives will benefit from it in the long run, they are upset that they will be displaced in order to build it. He warns that the local witch doctors have threatened to use black magic against anyone associated with the project. When the other board members scoff, he points out their own superstitions: one carries a rabbit's foot, another practices astrology, and even the building does not have a 13th floor. Later, he is in a bar having a drink with a friend before heading home, and shows him a lion's-tooth amulet Doris has given him. Supposedly the tooth will protect him against a lion attack. Alan begins to head home but finds his car won't start. He attempts to return to the bar but it is locked and he has forgotten his lion's-tooth amulet inside. He attempts to use a pay phone, but it's out of order. As Alan walks away, the phone rings. He answers it and hears nothing but sounds of the jungle. He heads home on foot, still hearing the sounds of the jungle all around him (including tribal drums), becoming more and more nervous and jumpy. He tries to take a taxi home, but the driver dies suddenly while stopped at a traffic light. Alan meets a bum and asks him about the jungle noises, which the bum claims not to hear. He offers the bum money to escort him through the park, but the bum disappears while Alan's back is turned. Alan continues on, and finally reaches the safety of his apartment. The noises suddenly stop. Relieved, Alan enters and pours himself a drink. He hears a lion's roar from the bedroom. When he opens the bedroom door, he finds a lion on the bed, as well as his wife's corpse. The episode ends as the lion leaps towards Alan for the kill. 

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The book covers the last years of Mick Foley's in-ring wrestling career up until the birth of his second son, Michael Francis Foley, Jr., which he mentions in the book's epilogue. It has a more celebratory tone than his first book, as he is writing about the time of his career where he has already achieved success. The book alternated between in-ring wrestling activities and Foley's life away from the ring. In the book, he also describes his obsessions, such as theme parks and Christmas. He also writes about his experience writing his first book without the aid of a ghostwriter. He defends himself against being misquoted by news program 20/20, and explains the events surrounding his "I Quit" match with The Rock at the Royal Rumble in January 1999, which can also be seen in the documentary Beyond the Mat. The book also heavily defends the World Wrestling Federation against accusations of being violent. Foley made an effort to pointedly refute claims made by detractors, citing statistical data and other evidence he compiled himself. He criticizes the actions of the Parents Television Council. 

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While enjoying themselves at Madame Zenobia's club on Saturday Night, Steve Jackson (Sidney Poitier) and Wardell Franklin (Bill Cosby) are held up by robbers who raid the club, taking Steve's wallet as a result. Upon realizing that a winning lottery ticket worth $50,000 is in the wallet, they set out to find the crooks themselves. Determined to retrieve the ticket, they search for it using the help of gangster Geechie Dan Beauford (Harry Belafonte), who wants to defeat his rival Silky Slim (Calvin Lockhart). Using their wit, perseverance, and fearlessness, Steve and Wardell devise a plan to get the ticket using the help of both gangsters, in the hopes that it will pay off for them. 

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Petty stars as Georgette "George" Sanders, a bohemian artist who was wild and uninhibited. Parsons played Margot Hines, a snooty, airheaded wanna-be businesswoman. The two would get into conflicts generally surrounding one of their crazy schemes. In one aired episode, George fakes her own death to draw attention and higher prices to her paintings.The Dead Lush Artist In another, Margot convinces some of George's gay male friends to pose as her boyfriend and frighten off a violent ex.The Lush Ex-Posures 

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The Dark Science Empire Desdark launches its scheme for world conquest from their Destopia Castle in Germany. Dr. Hideki Hongo, founder of the Future Science Laboratory, is saved from one of their attacks by world class explorer Kenichi Akama. Using his Computer Boys & Girls, Hongo recruits five people, including Kenichi, to form the Dai Sentai Goggle-V (Goggle 5), the only force capable of stopping Desdark. 

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The cartoon centers around Porky Pig and Daffy Duck's attempts to escape the Broken Arms Hotel manager without paying their bill (on which they are charged for every luxury, including breathing air, sunshine, and goodwill); the reason for trying to evade the payment is due to Daffy losing all their money playing craps. Despite numerous methods to elude the hotel manager (from using the elevator, sending the manager down a large spiral staircase, or going out of the window), he eventually gets the upper hand and locks them up in Porky and Daffy's hotel room until they pay up. Winter approaches, and Daffy is beginning to lose his sanity. Porky (after writing "Porky Loves Petunia" amidst the graffiti on the wall) wishes Bugs Bunny was with them. Daffy concurs and decides to call Bugs for advice, as the trickster is famous for being able to get out of seemingly inescapable situations. While on the phone, Bugs asks Daffy if he's tried various methods of escape, to which Daffy replies that he has. ("Yes, we tried all those ways.") The door to the next room opens up and Bugs is seen in shackles. He says, "Ahh, don't work, do they?" The cartoon irises out, with the "Porky drum" ending. 

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The film follows the production of Home for Purim, a low-budget drama film about a Jewish family in the southern United States in the 1940s. The cast consists of character actress Marilyn Hack (O'Hara) as the family's dying matriarch; veteran actor turned kosher hot dog mascot Victor Allen Miller (Shearer) as her husband; ingénue Callie Webb (Posey) as their lesbian daughter, whose return home with her girlfriend (Rachael Harris) serves as the driving plot of Home for Purim; and Brian Chubb (Christopher Moynihan), who is dating Webb, as their son. The film's director (Guest) constantly incorporates bizarre camera shots and acting notes, while the producer (Coolidge), heiress to a diaper service, knows nothing about producing films. The two screenwriters (Balaban and McKean) are at odds with the director, as they struggle to align the film's period Southern setting with incongruous Jewish references and words. When an unattributed rumor begins to circulate that Hack, Miller, and Webb are likely to receive Oscar nominations for the film, each begins obsessing about the award. Hack pretends not to care while secretly pining for the award, Miller demands a higher salary and pushes his agent (Levy) for more dignified work, and Webb breaks up with Chubb. Later, the hosts of entertainment news program Hollywood Now (Willard and Lynch) visit the set and interview the cast. The studio intervenes in the production of Home for Purim and, deeming the film to be "too Jewish," re-title it Home for Thanksgiving. Despite this, the Oscar buzz around the film intensifies, and the three prospective nominees begin to make press appearances to promote the film. Miller appears on a hip-hop teen show called Chillaxin' in youthful attire with capped teeth, a tan, and dyed blonde hair. Hack gets breast implants and extensive plastic surgery to the point where her face is comically ecstatic. Webb goes on a shock jock radio show, only to field questions exclusively about her nude scenes. The Academy Award nominations are announced, and only Chubb (who sleeps through the morning of the announcement) is nominated. Miller returns to auditioning for commercials. Webb attempts to revive her failed one-woman show, No Penis Intended. Hack makes a drunken rant on Hollywood Now and becomes an acting teacher, having made an uncomfortable peace with her mediocre career. 

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Homer and Marge discover that their house is partially sinking. Homer tries to repair the house himself, but is unsuccessful. Homer decides to call a foundation repairman and finds out that it will cost $8,500 for the repairs. Homer takes Marge to a party for the retirement of a Springfield Nuclear Power Plant employee. With a new position open at the power plant, Marge decides to apply for it to get the money for the foundation repair. With the help of Lisa, Marge gets the job at the power plant. Mr. Burns attempts to seduce Marge, who tells him that she is married. He dismisses her, so she threatens a lawsuit and enlists the help of Lionel Hutz, who is completely unsuccessful and flees from Burns' army of real lawyers. Burns gives up after Homer defends Marge. The episode ends as Homer and Marge enjoy a private show performed by the captured Tom Jones, who secretly begs Marge to help him escape. Meanwhile, at school, Bart does not want to take a test, so he fakes a stomach ache. Edna Krabappel asks if Bart has ever read The Boy Who Cried Wolf. When Bart returns to school, Edna suggests that he take a make-up test, he immediately procrastinates. Grampa comes to pick him up and on the way home and references The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Again, Bart is unfazed. When he returns to school again, he is forced to take the test without any exception. Bart protests, but Edna ignores him. She places him alone outside the classroom, hands him the test, and leaves. At Krustylu Studios, the taping of Krusty the Clown's latest show features a wildlife expert visiting, showing a hawk and a wolf, who warns that the latter is spooked by loud noises. Unfortunately for the wolf, Krusty declares "loud" being the secret word of the day. Celebration and noise ensue, causing the terrified wolf to panic and escape the studio. The strayed wolf runs to Springfield Elementary School, where it attacks Bart outside the classroom. He cries "Wolf!" but Edna ignores his pleas. Groundskeeper Willie rescues Bart by fighting the wolf, giving Bart time to return to his classroom. Since he feels that he will not be believed that he was attacked by a wolf, Bart decides to say that he made it up by showing modest honesty to Edna. He then passes out on the floor and Edna realises that he was indeed telling the truth. Grampa takes him home, while Willie gives the wolf some alcohol and consoles him about losing. 

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Tom Merriam (Russell Wade), a young merchant marine officer, joins the crew of the ship Altair. At first, all seems well and Merriam bonds with the captain, Will Stone (Richard Dix). The ship, already shorthanded due to the death of a crew member before it left port, almost loses another ("the Greek") when he develops appendicitis. Taking direction over the ship's radio, the captain is to perform the appendectomy, but he is unable to make the incision. Instead, Merriam successfully removes the sailor's appendix, but - feeling he should be loyal to the captain and spare him embarrassment - swears the radio operator to secrecy. Afterward, the captain has a self-serving explanation for his failure. One of the crew, Louie (an uncredited Lawrence Tierney), tells the captain he should pull in to port and take on new crew. The captain says "You know, there are captains who might hold this against you, Louie." Shortly after, the captain closes the hatch to the chain locker with Louie inside, and Louie is crushed to death by the chain. Merriam believes that Captain Stone, who is obsessed with authority, did it intentionally. When they dock at the fictional Caribbean island of "San Sebastian" (which had appeared in RKO's I Walked with a Zombie—another Lewton production—and later in RKO's Zombies on Broadway), Merriam attempts to expose the Captain's madness at a board of inquiry. The crew all speak favorably of the captain, including the Greek, who credits the captain with saving his life. Merriam states his intention to leave the Altair. After the inquiry, the captain admits to a female friend (Edith Barrett, who had appeared in I Walked with a Zombie) that he fears he is losing his mind. Soon after, Merriam is involved in a fight in port and knocked unconscious. One of his former shipmates - unaware that he has left the Altair - brings the unconscious man back aboard ship before the vessel departs. Merriam wakes up on the ship and fears that the pathologically insane Captain Stone may now attempt to kill him, a fear that is only reinforced when the captain, referring to the young officer's accusations, says "You know, Mr. Merriam, there are some captains who would hold this against you." Merriam, scorned by the crew, finds that he can no longer lock the door to his cabin. Fearing for his life, he tries to steal a gun from the ship's weapons locker, but is confronted by Captain Stone. Stone dares Merriam to try to get the support of the crew, but Merriam is rebuffed in this effort. This changes when Radioman Winslow (Edmund Glover) receives a radiogram asking if Merriam is on board, and Captain Stone orders Winslow to lie, replying that Merriam is not aboard. The radioman shows Merriam the captain's reply radiogram and says that he now mistrusts the captain and will send a message to the company expressing his concerns about Stone's mental health. However, as he leaves Merriam's cabin, Winslow encounters the captain. As the two walk side-by-side, Winslow drops the captain's radiogram to the deck, and it is picked up by an illiterate crewman, Finn the Mute (Skelton Knaggs), whose internal monologues serve as a sort of one-man Greek chorus throughout the film. Captain Stone now orders Merriam to send a radio message to the corporate office advising them that Winslow has been washed overboard. Merriam accuses the captain of murdering Winslow, and the two fight. Crew members intervene, and the captain has the crew tie up Merriam and put him in his bunk. The captain then has First Officer Bowns (Ben Bard) administer a sedative to Merriam. Finn finally delivers the captain's radiogram to Bowns. After reading it, Bowns becomes deeply alarmed. The first officer talks to several other crew members, all of whom now begin questioning the captain's sanity. Captain Stone overhears Bowns' conversation with the crew, and goes insane. He takes a knife and enters Merriam's cabin to kill the young officer, but Finn arrives to try to stop him. While the crew is up on deck singing, Finn and the captain engage in a desperate struggle in the dark, during which Finn kills the captain. After the captain's death, Merriam is reinstated and the ship returns to its home port of San Pedro. 

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In 1933, Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield is a poor traveling salesman during the Great Depression, who tries to make a living. He temporarily finds happiness with a girl named Maggie Monday, but he meets his unfortunate end when Otis, Maggie's father, comes home, and kills him, dumping his body in the wilderness. 26 years later, the city of Punchbowl, Pennsylvania, founded by multi-billionaire playboy industrialist Andrew Monday, Maggie's son, has been built directly on top of Stubbs' not-so-final resting place. At its opening ceremony in 1959, Stubbs rises from his grave as a zombie and decides to get his revenge by eating the brains of the inhabitants of Punchbowl, quickly creating his own army of the undead, causing increasing amounts of havoc as the zombies clash with the various militant factions of the area. Beforehand, Stubbs heads to the Punchbowl Police Station where he is captured and the police chief planning on dancing on Stubbs' grave, but he escapes by ripping his arm off and using it to control an inmate to release his restraints. Stubbs soon made his way to the chief's office where they have a dance-off before the chief dances to the armoury, unaware he has Stubbs' pancreas on him which explodes, killing him. As he makes his way, eating brains of the civilians, Stubbs kills Otis Monday by blowing up his house after a brief reunion. Shortly before this, in a barn (spoofing the war film Patton), Stubbs stands in front of an American flag hanging from a barn wall and gives a speech to his zombies. Though the speech consists only of the word "Brains" said in many tones with limited gestures, his zombies apparently understand him well enough to let loose a cheer of "BRAINS!" before shuffling away. Stubbs soon goes to the dam where he decided to contaminate the water by urinating in it and having some zombies complete electric circuitry to blow up the dam. Stubbs eventually reunites with Maggie and the two lovingly embrace—with Stubbs promptly eating her brain. Before her brain was eaten, Maggie revealed Stubbs was in fact Andrew's father, who got Maggie pregnant prior to his death. The angered Andrew tries to get his revenge on Stubbs by killing him from behind the force field, halfway destroying Punchbowl. Stubbs, however, must destroy the force field and loom toward Andrew, but Maggie, now a zombie, convinces him to spare their son. The game ends with Stubbs and Maggie sailing off on a small rowboat, kissing as Andrew and all of Punchbowl are destroyed by a nuclear bomb to cleanse the undead infestation, and they both "live" happily ever after. During the credits, photos of things that happened during the events of the game are shown on the left. 

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Joan Collins in the movie A heavenly paradise becomes a hellish nightmare when a toxic spill turns harmless ants into gigantic rampaging monsters. The opening narration briefly introduces the viewer to the ant and its behavior. It takes note how ants use pheromones to communicate, and how they cause an obligatory response that must be obeyed. "But we (humans) don't have to worry about it..." As the opening credits roll, barrels of radioactive waste are being dumped off a boat into the ocean. Eventually, one of the barrels washes up on the shore and begins to leak a silvery goo attractive to the local ants, which are seen feeding on it. Meanwhile, shady land developer Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) takes a bunch of new clients to view some 'beachfront property' on a nearby island. In reality, the land is worthless, but the trip is cut short by the group stumbling upon the lair of large ants. The ants destroy their boat and chase the group through the woods. Fleeing for their lives through the wilderness and losing many of their party along the way, the remaining survivors eventually discover the local island town. But their safety is short-lived when they realize that not only are the large ants feeding on the sugar at the local sugar factory, but that they are doing so at the invitation of the humans. The queen ant, using pheromones, has the entire town completely under her control. However, the survivors manage to escape and burn the sugar factory, killing the large ants, and leave the island by a speedboat. 

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George Moore is a faded and slightly foolish philosophy professor employed at a university whose slick, exercise-mad Vice-Chancellor Archie Jumper forces a tumbling and leaping curriculum on the faculty. One such flipping prof, McFee, is shot dead in the cabaret chaos of the opening scene, setting off a suddenly very urgent philosophical duel on the moral nature of man. Caught in between is Dotty, George's disturbed wife and Archie's "patient." Dotty, a former student of George's, ended a semi-successful stage career when the sight of astronauts on the moon unhinged her sanity. According to Dotty, the conquering of the moon revealed the human race—once scientifically and spiritually the center of the universe—as "little, local."Playbill: Leveaux and Company Mount a Moral Trapeze as Stoppard's Jumpers Opens on Broadway A significant element of the play is George's unavailing efforts to define 'Good' and other philosophical abstractions, in which he demonstrates his foolishness and lack of connection with the real world. The bathetic climax comes when George, firing an arrow to demonstrate Zeno's paradox, accidentally shoots dead a pet hare he uses to model the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise. Blinded by grief, he steps on and crushes the tortoise which forms the other part of the demonstration. The British moon landing parodies the Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole led by Robert Falcon Scott, in which the astronauts, rather than dying together, turn on one another in adversity. 

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Claiming to be inspired by actual, but never publicized facts, the story of Nekro is staged in mid-1980s Romania. Its basic building block is the eternal fight between God and Satan. Securitatea, the Communist Romanian secret police, takes notices of an illegal religious sect. David, a colonel serving with Securitatea, is assigned to eradicate the sect. He arrests the leader of the sect and subjects him to a series of sadistic interrogations. During the interrogations, David's mind blurs. He gets revelations from the World of Darkness, and starts acting as a man possessed by a demon. The leader of the sect vanishes from prison. Diagnosed as a madman by a psychiatrist, David is dismissed from Securitatea. Eight years later, he senses the presence of his Master in the surroundings, but cannot locate him. He sees the former leader of the sect, who returned to Romania as a film producer, on the news. David has no doubt that he is his Master. However, as David was not cursed by God to be a Demon, he is able to gather the last of his strength and attempt to kill the Master. Consequently, David is arrested and taken by the police to a hospice. As all these events unfold, several young women are murdered in Bucharest, the killings becoming breaking news. The psychiatrist who diagnosed David as madman, and who possesses psychic powers, has a vision of the next murder victim. He calls and leaves a message on her answering machine to warn her. The young woman is indeed killed. Looking for clues, the police search her residence and hear the psychiatrist's message. They talk to him, and the psychiatrist directs the detectives to David. The lieutenant in charge of the investigation knows that David cannot be the killer, as he was under surveillance at the hospice at the time the woman was murdered. The lieutenant suspects that they are dealing with a serial killer, as sex was performed on each corpse after the killing. What he does not know though, is that the sex acts were videotaped for commercial purpose. David escapes from the hospice, and his daughter is kidnapped. His senses take him to a forest that spreads beyond the city limits, where his Master, the actual serial killer, performs the killing rituals. It turns out that he ordered the kidnapping of David's daughter, who is next on his list, but David's appearance in the forest has complicated plans. Eventually, David is ordered to force himself on his own daughter. Instead of doing so, he kills her, and then gets killed himself. Was David cursed by God to be a Demon? In the afterlife, David defeats the evil spirit, who reincarnated itself into the leader of the sect, and later into the film producer. Do God and Satan exist? 

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The Emperor of China learns that one of the most beautiful things in his empire is the song of the nightingale. When he orders the nightingale brought to him, a kitchen maid (the only one at court who knows of its whereabouts) leads the court to a nearby forest, where the nightingale agrees to appear at court; it remains as the Emperor's favorite. When the Emperor is given a bejeweled mechanical bird he loses interest in the real nightingale, who returns to the forest. The mechanical bird eventually breaks down; and the Emperor is taken deathly ill a few years later. The real nightingale learns of the Emperor's condition and returns to the palace; whereupon Death is so moved by the nightingale's song that he allows the Emperor to live. 

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The book begins with a "fair haired" boy rowing a canoe to the place where Necromancer DomDaniel drowned, along with his ship. His skeleton climbs into the canoe, while the fair haired boy thinks about exacting his revenge on all the people who underestimated him. He thinks that they'll be sorry, especially when he becomes the ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Septimus Heap has become the apprentice to Marcia Overstrand, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and a year has gone by. Septimus's older brother, Simon, had run away after an argument between him and Sarah and Silas Heap about Septimus, who Simon dislikes. He comes back and kidnaps Jenna on his horse, Thunder. Septimus goes to search for her and he is assisted in his search by his brother Nicko, who helps build boats at Jannit Maarten's boatyard. But Jenna runs away from Simon's observatory in The Badlands and makes her way towards The Port. Eventually Septimus is able to rescue Jenna with his elder brother Nicko's help from the Port but they are tracked by Sleuth, Simon's tracking ball. They make their way to the Marram Marshes where they take the Dragon-Boat from Aunt Zelda's cottage and fly her to the Castle. However, they are pursued by Simon, who used a Flyte Charm to fly in the sky. Simon drops a huge Thunderflash on the Dragon-Boat's wing and it drops over Jannit Marten's Boatyard. Septimus, Jenna, and Aunt Zelda are able to revive her through the Transubstantiation Triple spell. Septimus is also in search of the long lost Flyte charm. He finds the separated charm and unites it along with the small pair-of-wings Flyte charm that Marcia had given him as a token for his apprenticeship. Eventually he is able to fly and even warns Simon never to harm Jenna again. Also, the rock that Jenna gave him at Aunt Zelda's cottage turns out to be the egg of a dragon and eventually it hatches. Septimus absolutely adores the dragon and names him Spit Fyre. The dragon, based on the seeing-is-believing basis, identifies Marcia as his mother after yelling at him on the dragon launch pad. Septimus rescues Marcia by identifying the shadow that has been trailing her. He also finds out that the ShadowSafe Marcia is developing contains, unbeknownst to her, the bones of the dead Necromancer, DomDaniel, which, once reassembled, tries to kill Marcia. With Septimus's help, Marcia is able to Identify him and he is once again destroyed. 

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Ex- Marine Frank Castle is a former undercover police detective whose wife Julie was killed five years ago, along with their daughters Annie and Felice, by a Mafia car bomb intended for Frank...who is also presumed to be dead. Castle has since become the city's most wanted, and most mysterious, vigilante - known only as "The Punisher". He now lives in the labyrinthine sewer-system of NYC, having assassinated 125 mobsters (not counting henchmen) in the past half-decade. His work is known by the use of special throwing-knives engraved with a skull. Castle's sole ally in his one-man war against organized crime is Shake (taken from Shakespeare and "the shakes"), a stage-performer-turned derelict who typically speaks in rhyme. The underworld families have become so weakened by the Punisher's guerrilla warfare that kingpin Gianni Franco is forced out of retirement. Franco plans to unify the decimated families. However, this attracts unwanted attention from the Yakuza, Asia's most powerful crime syndicate. Led by Lady Tanaka, the Yakuza decide to take over the Mafia families and all of their interests. In order to sway the mobsters to their cause, they kidnap their children and hold them for ransom. Shake pleads with the Punisher to save the children, who are likely to be sold into the Arab slave trade regardless of whether the Mafia give into the demands. The Punisher attacks Yakuza businesses, warning that for every day the children are held in captivity, he will inflict heavy costs on them in property damage. The Yakuza later capture the Punisher and Shake and attempt to torture them into submission, but the Punisher breaks free and decides the only course of action is a direct rescue. He is able to save most of the children with a .45 Thompson M1928 submachine gun against the Yakuza guards and commandeers a bus to get the kidnapped children to safety. However prior to this Tommy Franco, the son of Gianni Franco, had been taken away to Yakuza headquarters. When driving the busload of kids, the Punisher runs into a police roadblock and is arrested. While in custody Castle is reunited with one of his old partners, who warns his multiple killings will likely get him executed, however at a later point Castle is broken out of jail by Franco's men. Franco admits he brought this on himself as the hit on Castle's family was an error, and persuades the Punisher to help him save his son. Castle agrees to work with his old enemy for the sake of stopping the Japanese criminal underworld from taking root in America. Franco and the Punisher raid the Yakuza headquarters, fight and kill all the Yakuza, including Lady Tanaka and her daughter. Upon being reunited with his son, Franco betrays the Punisher, but Castle defends himself and kills Franco. Franco's son then threatens the Punisher for killing his father, but cannot bring himself to hurt him. Castle warns Franco's son to "stay a good boy, and grow up to be a good man", not following his father's misdeeds. He also warns he will return should the boy commit any crimes, then disappears. The police arrive, only to find no trace of the Punisher. Meanwhile, at his lair, Castle narrates that he'll be waiting in the shadows, serving his own brand of justice. 

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A smuggling operation in Tampa Bay results in the deaths of Bobby Saint, the son of mafia boss Howard Saint, and Otto Krieg, an arms dealer. However, Krieg's death was faked; he is revealed to be undercover FBI agent and Delta Force veteran Frank Castle on his final mission before retirement. Enraged over the death of his son, Saint orders his men to find out everything they can about Krieg, and learns of Krieg's true identity. He orders Castle killed at a family reunion, while Saint's wife Livia requests that Castle's family be killed as well. At the reunion, Saint's men, including Saint's best friend Quentin Glass and Bobby's identical twin John, kill Castle's entire family and shoot Castle, leaving him for dead. Castle survives and is nursed back to health by a local fisherman. With the police and FBI unwilling to pursue the killers due to Saint's power and influence, Castle moves into an abandoned apartment occupied by three outcasts—Joan, Bumpo, and Spacker Dave—and begins his mission to bring the Saints down. With the help of information provided by Mickey Duka, Saint's less malevolent henchman, Castle studies the Saint family and learns their every move, during which he discovers Glass to be a closeted homosexual. He openly attacks Saint's business and sabotages his partnership with his Cuban partners. Saint discovers Castle is alive and sends assassins to kill him. The first, Harry Heck, ambushes Castle on a bridge until he crashes his car, but is killed when Castle stabs his throat with a ballistic knife. The second, a behemoth called the Russian, nearly beats Castle to death in his own apartment. Castle kills him by dousing his face with boiling oil and pushing him down a flight of stairs, breaking his neck. The tenants treat Castle's wounds and hide him in his hidden elevator as Saint's men arrive for him. When Dave and Bumpo refuse to reveal Castle's hideout, Glass tortures Dave by plucking each of his piercings with pliers. They leave one of their men to intercept Castle, but Castle kills him after they leave. With Mickey's help, Castle poses as an anonymous blackmailer and arranges for Glass to be at certain places while planting Livia's car in the same location, and ultimately placing one of Livia's earrings in Glass's bed. When Saint finds the earrings, he stabs Glass to death and, despite her protest that Glass was gay, accuses Livia of having an affair with his best friend. He throws Livia off an overpass onto a railroad track, where she is run over by a train. With Saint despondent, Castle assaults Saint's club and kills every member of his mob, including his remaining son John. Saint escapes the building albeit wounded. Castle pursues him and shoots him in a duel. As Saint lies dying, Castle reveals his schemes that led Saint to kill his friend and wife. He ties Saint to a car and sends it into the club's parking lot which is rigged with explosives. Saint dies in the ensuing explosion. Castle returns home and prepares to kill himself with his mission fulfilled, but changes his mind after seeing a vision of his wife, instead deciding to continue to fight crime. He leaves some of Saint's money as a farewell gift to the tenants for protecting him. He is then seen standing alone on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset, where, in a voice-over, he vows to kill all evildoers in his new identity, the Punisher. 

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Jonesy, Beaver, Pete, and Henry are four friends on an annual hunting trip in Maine. As children, they all acquired telepathic powers which they call "the line" after saving a boy with disabilities named Douglas "Duddits" Cavell from bullies and befriending him. One night, Jonesy sees Duddits beckoning him to cross the street, but as he does so Jonesy is hit by a car. His injuries heal with mysterious speed and six months later he is able to make it for the group's annual trip. Jonesy rescues a man lost in the forest named Rick McCarthy. He is very ill, so Jonesy and Beaver let him rest and recover inside their cabin. Suddenly, all the forest animals run past their cabin in the same direction; it is implied fear is the motivation as predator and prey flee together, followed by two military helicopters that announce the area is now quarantined. Jonesy and Beaver return to the cabin to find a trail of blood from the bedroom to the bathroom, where Rick is sitting semi-catatonic on the toilet, which is now covered in blood. Rick is pushed off the toilet, falling, dead, into the tub as a three-foot long lamprey like creature writhes and screams in the toilet. Beaver attempts to trap the creature under the toilet lid, but he succumbs to his OCD to pick up a toothpick, allowing the creature to break out and kill him. Jonesy tries to escape but is confronted by a large alien called Mr. Gray, who possesses Jonesy's body and emits a red-dust around the entire cabin. Nearby, Henry and Pete crash their SUV to avoid running over a frostbitten woman from Rick's original hunting party. Henry walks for help while Pete stays with the woman. She dies and also excretes a worm, which Pete barely manages to kill. Mr. Gray tricks and kidnaps Pete, but Jonesy telepathically warns Henry to stay hidden. Henry returns to the cabin to find Beaver dead and the worm that killed him laying a group of eggs. To kill all of the alien larvae, he sets fire to the cabin. Meanwhile, an elite military unit specializing in extraterrestrials, led by the slightly unhinged Colonel Abraham Curtis, seeks to contain everyone exposed to the aliens. Col. Curtis is planning to retire after this operation and will pass command, along with a pearl-handled stainless-steel .45 pistol, to Captain Owen Underhill, his trusted friend and second in command. The two lead an air-strike into a large forest clearing where the aliens' spaceship has crash-landed. The aliens use telepathy to ask for mercy, but the helicopters massacre most of the aliens with mini-guns and missiles. The alien ship self-destructs, destroying the remaining aliens and two helicopters. Jonesy retraces his memories of the area while watching Mr. Gray use his body. Mr. Gray tries to coerce Pete into cooperating but bites him in half when he refuses. Jonesy realizes that Mr. Gray possessed him, not by chance, but to access past memories of Duddits which he needs. Henry arrives at the fenced-in concentration camp only to realize that Col. Curtis plans to kill all of those quarantined. Henry convinces Underhill to prevent this by going over Curtis' head and having him relieved. Later, Henry uses Underhill's gun as a phone to contact Jonesy mentally. Henry and Underhill break out of the camp and head to Duddits' home. Duddits, who is dying of leukemia, informs them Mr. Gray is headed for the Quabbin Reservoir to seed the water with alien larvae. Curtis, realizing the danger looming to the entire planet, leaves the camp in his armed helicopter and tracks down Henry, Underhill, and Duddits via a micro- chip in the pistol. At the reservoir, Underhill is mortally wounded and dies shortly after he shoots Curtis down. In the reservoir's pump house, Henry uses Underhill's machine gun to kill Mr. Gray's worm but cannot decide if Jonesy is possessed. Duddits confronts Mr. Gray, who finally exits Jonesy's body. The two struggle as Duddits reveals himself to also be an alien of a different race. Both aliens explode in a cloud of red-dust which briefly resembles a dreamcatcher. Jonesy, now himself again, steps on the final alien larva before it can escape and contaminate the reservoir. 

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Mio, My Son starts by introducing Bo Vilhelm Olsson ("Bosse"), a young boy who has been adopted by an elderly couple who dislike boys. They harass him, and tell him to stay out of their way. One day he receives an apple from the kindly shopkeeper, Mrs. Lundin, who asks him to mail a postcard for her. He mails the postcard, but not before he has thrown a glance at it. It is addressed to a king, and it says that his son will soon be coming home, recognized by his possession of a golden apple. Bosse looks at his apple and suddenly it turns into gold. Soon after, Bosse finds a bottle with a genie trapped inside. Upon freeing it, the genie recognises the apple and takes Bosse to another world, far, far away. Upon arriving, Bosse is told that his real name is Mio, and that he is son of the king and thus prince of the land. He finds a new best friend, Jum-Jum, and receives the horse Miramis from his father. However, he soon learns that not everything in this world is as wonderful as it first seemed. In the lands beyond that of the king lives an evil knight named Kato, whose hatred is so strong that the land around his castle is barren and singed. He has kidnapped several children from the nearby villages, and he poses a constant threat to the people living there. Mio is told that his destiny is to fight Kato, even though he is only a child. Together with Jum- Jum and Miramis, Mio sets out on a perilous journey into the land of Kato, as the stories have foreseen for thousands and thousands of years. In the American version, Mio is first called Karl Anders Nilsson, nicknamed Andy, and Jum-Jum's name is Pompoo.https://www.amazon.com/Mio-My-Son-Astrid- Lindgren/dp/1930900236 

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Years of civil war have brought the ninjutsu code and its warriors to the brink of extinction. A ninjutsu master selects three children to carry on the ninja traditions for the next generation: two brothers, Kazuma and Sho, and his own daughter Aya. He begins to train them. Fifteen years pass. The oldest boy, Kazuma, begins to reject all the ninjutsu teachings, save the technique of strength. Obsessed with power, Kazuma demands that the master teach him the ultimate technique. The master refuses, and Kazuma vows to return one day and take revenge. Sho and Aya continue their studies and master the ninjutsu teachings. Kazuma returns with an army and the resources to build a fortress. Although the old master has died, his pupils contain the secrets of the ultimate technique. Kazuma sets up a trap to lure Sho into his hideout, and kidnaps Aya to use her as a bait. In the ending, Kazuma sacrifices himself to save Aya and Sho from an explosion. 

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Charles Lodge (William Powell), a free-spirited bohemian who lives in a cluttered car trailer, disrupts the well-ordered life of successful, hardworking businesswoman Margit Agnew (Myrna Loy) when he convinces her younger sister Irene (Florence Rice) that she should become an actress. However, Margit is determined that Irene marry the fiancé she (and her mother before) had personally picked out for her sister, the pliable, weak-willed cousin Waldo (John Beal). Fed up with Waldo's lack of initiative during a four-year engagement, Irene becomes infatuated with Charles. He pretends to return her feelings so he can stay close to Margit. When Margit confronts him, he agrees to never see Irene again if Margit will let him paint her portrait. She reluctantly agrees to three weeks of sittings. As they spend time together, she begins to respond to his decidedly unconventional charms. Meanwhile, Charles tries to teach Waldo to stand up for himself so that he can regain Irene's regard, but with little luck. When Irene shows up unexpectedly at his trailer, Charles gets her to leave, but she is spotted by Margit. Believing he lied about giving Irene up, she angrily smashes the painting over his head. Charles arranges for a wedding, ostensibly to marry Irene, but actually as a ploy to simultaneously reconcile Irene and Waldo and win Margit's hand. However, Waldo is nowhere to be seen when Charles is asked if he will take Irene for his wife. He is forced to answer no, and that he is really in love with Margit. She finally admits she loves him too. A drunk Waldo then shows up, punches Charles in the nose and carries a delighted Irene off. 

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One ordinary day in the village, Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix leave for the forest to hunt for wild boars. As they are walking, a storm begins to brew, and a nearby tree is struck by lightning. Dogmatix is frightened, and runs away. While they are searching for him, Asterix and Obelix see flames in the distance. Asterix hurries off to investigate, while Obelix remains and searches for Dogmatix. Upon arriving at the scene, Asterix meets a Roman secret agent, formerly in Caesar's service. He feels scorned for having been sacked by Caesar, and agrees to help Asterix and Obelix foil the Romans plans. Asterix enters the village to find it ablaze and full of Romans. He quickly defeats them, and makes his way through the Gaulish countryside to a hilltop by the sea. There, he meets up with Obelix, who tells him that Dogmatix is still nowhere to be found. They learn from the Roman agent that their fellow villagers have been kidnapped by the Romans. Asterix and Obelix then follow him to a dock, where he points out two barges far off in the distance, and mentions that their friends are probably being held prisoner aboard them. Farther up the path, the secret agent finds Dogmatix, and Obelix's beloved pet joins the duo in their Roman-bashing antics. Asterix and Obelix then fight off many more Roman soldiers, plowing through a country road. After finally defeating all of the warriors, the two discover a padlocked wagon at the end of the road. Obelix breaks open the door, and the village druid, Getafix, clambers out. He explains to them that while he was locked up, he overheard Caesar's plans to send the Gaulish villagers to different parts of the Roman Empire. Their locations were etched into a white marble map, which Caesar smashed after showing to his soldiers. Thus, Getafix returns to the village, and Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix set off to the first location to free their fellow villagers from the clutches of the Romans.Asterix & Obelix XXL at . Retrieved 2008-06-26. 

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After his mother is shot and killed by a hunter, Bambi is greeted by the Great Prince, who takes him to the den. The Great Prince asks Friend Owl to find a doe to raise Bambi, but Friend Owl tells him that the does can barely feed themselves. The Great Prince has to take care of Bambi for a while. Sometime later, the Great Prince allows Bambi to be with Thumper and Flower. At the groundhog ceremony, Bambi meets up with Faline. The Groundhog is coaxed out of his hole, only to be scared back in by Ronno, who tries to impress Faline with stories of his encounter with Man. When Bambi believes the story, Ronno is about to fight Bambi until he is called away by his mother. When the others leave, Bambi falls asleep waiting for his father. He wakes up to what appears to be his mother's voice, which calls him into a meadow, but it turns out to be an ambush by Man. The Great Prince comes to Bambi's rescue and both of them escape, but Bambi is yelled at for endangering himself. Days later, Bambi informs Thumper and Flower about his wish to impress his father. They decide to help Bambi be brave, but while doing so, they encounter a porcupine, who sticks his quills into Bambi's backside. Ronno and Faline, hearing the commotion, investigate; Bambi sees Ronno bothering Faline and gets into a fight with him. Ronno chases Bambi and Thumper through the forest until Bambi leaps over a large ravine to safety. The Great Prince, having seen the whole thing, is impressed by this feat. Ronno, jealous of the young prince, tries to jump over the chasm himself, but falls in, thwarted for now. The next day, Thumper encourages Bambi to talk to the Great Prince, and the two connect. The Great Prince allows Bambi to come along with him on his patrols, and as the two get closer, Friend Owl approaches them and introduces them to Mena, a doe that he has selected as Bambi's new mother. Bambi realizes the Great Prince had planned on sending him away and snaps at his father, while the Great Prince concludes that he is not meant to raise Bambi. Bambi sadly accepts the change. On the way to Mena's den, Ronno shows up to taunt Bambi again. The two get into another fight that sets off one of Man's traps, alerting Man. Bambi saves Mena by leading Man's dogs away from her, and the Great Prince arrives. The dogs chase Bambi, and his friends help him fend them off. Bambi evades all but one of the dogs. Bambi kicks the other dog off a cliff but falls off as well. Everyone grieves him until Bambi reveals he is still alive, and he and the Great Prince reconcile. Sometime later, Thumper shares his version of the chase with the rest of his friends, and Bambi, whose antlers have just grown in, enjoys the tall tale with Faline. Ronno appears and vows vengeance on both of them before being bitten on the nose by a turtle and runs off. Bambi meets up with the Great Prince, who shows him the field where he first met his mother. 

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The evil giant, Death Adder, has invaded the countries of Firewood, Nendoria and Altorulia and killed the royal families. A young hero from Firewood sets out on a quest to destroy the giant. To counter Adder's evil magic he needs to find the nine crystals of the royal family from Firewood. These crystals warded off Death Adder until the king was betrayed by a minister who sold the crystals to Adder. Death Adder has hidden the crystals in nine labyrinths. On his quest the hero visits numerous villages and discovers numerous people hiding from Death Adder. He can learn the Thunder, Earth, Fire and Water magics. He learns that the princess of Firewood is still alive and that he is the son of the king of Altorulia. After finding all nine crystals the hero is able to enter the tenth and final labyrinth where he must find the mythical Golden Axe, the only weapon that can harm Death Adder, before facing the giant himself. 

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Mary is the story of Lev Glebovich Ganin, a Russian émigré and former White Guard Officer displaced by the Russian Revolution. Ganin is now living in a boarding house in Berlin, along with a young Russian girl, Klara, an old Russian poet, Podtyagin, his landlady, Lydia Nikolaevna Dorn and his neighbour, Aleksey Ivanovich Alfyorov, whom he meets in a dark, broken-down elevator at the onset of the novel. Through a series of conversations with Alfyorov and a photograph, Ganin discovers that his long-lost first love, Mary, is now the wife of his rather unappealing neighbour, and that she will be joining him soon. As Ganin realizes this, he effectively ends his relationship with his current girlfriend, Lyudmila, and begins to be consumed by his memories of his time in Russia with Mary, which Ganin notes "were perhaps the happiest days of his life". Enthralled by his vision of Mary and unable to let Alfyorov have her, Ganin contrives schemes in order to reunite with Mary, who he believes still loves him. Eventually, Ganin claims that he will leave Berlin the night before Mary is to arrive and his fellow residents throw a party for him the previous night. Ganin steadily plies Alfyorov with alcohol, heavily intoxicating him. Just before Alfyorov falls into his drunken sleep, he asks Ganin to set his alarm clock for half past seven, as Alfyorov intends to pick up Mary at the train station the next morning. The infatuated Ganin instead sets the clock for eleven and plans to meet Mary at the train station himself. However, as Ganin arrives at the train station, he realizes that "the world of memories in which Ganin had dwelt became what it was in reality the distant past... other than that image no Mary existed, nor could exist". Instead of meeting Mary, Ganin decides to board a train to France and "move on". Amidst the central plot is a secondary, minor plot of an old Russian poet, Anton Sergeyevich Podtyagin, who appears to be an older version of Ganin. Podtyagin desires to eventually leave Berlin and arrive in Paris, but fails to do so on several occasions due to a series of unfortunate events (ie. loses passport). 

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In Prague, Czech Republic, single mother Helena (Isabelle Blais) is seduced by a successful, handsome man and travels with him to spend a weekend in Vienna, Austria. He then sells her to a human trafficking ring and she is brought to New York City to work as a sex slave. In Kiev, Ukraine, sixteen-year-old Nadia (Laurence Leboeuf) enters a modelling competition, without her father's knowledge. She is selected by the bogus model agency to travel to New York with the other selected candidates, where she is forced into a life of sexual slavery. Nadia and Helena are placed in the same house in Washington and become friends. In Manila, Philippines, twelve-year-old American tourist Annie Gray (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) is abducted in front of her mother in a busy street by sex traffickers. She is forced into a child brothel which primarily services sex tourists, overseen by an Australian man, Tommy. In common, the girls become victims of a powerful international network of sex traffickers led by the powerful Sergei Karpovich (Robert Carlyle). In New York, after the third death of young Eastern European prostitutes, Russian-American NYPD Detective Kate Morozov (Mira Sorvino) suspects that these women are being "trafficked" by human trafficking gangs. Kate becomes a Special Agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under her new boss, Bill Meehan (Donald Sutherland), the Special Agent-In-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New York Field Office. At a party worked by Sergei’s girls, Nadia attempts escape but is caught. As punishment, Helena is moved to a location in New York City. Kate busts a salon where girls are being trafficked from the basement. One of the rescued girls is Helena. She tells Kate about her daughter in Prague, who is successfully rescued by Czech police before Karpovich’s men can abduct her. Helena also mentions Sergei Karpovich and implores Kate to find Nadia. However, Helena is killed by a sniper bullet shortly after being moved to protective custody. In Manila, Annie’s mother remains to search for her daughter while her husband returns to the US. Meanwhile, Annie is held at a child brothel, awaiting transportation to the Middle East. She manages to call her mother and they overhear Tommy talking in the background. They later identify Tommy on the street and the brothel is identified by the police. In Kiev, Nadia’s father Viktor stresses about Nadia’s disappearance. He locates details of the modelling agency and infiltrates the organisation by bonding with one of Karpovich’s men. He is sent to Mexico City to help transport another shipment of girls. He is eventually sent to Washington, where he and Nadia are secretly reunited. Using information from Helena, Kate locates the Washington brothel. While Nadia is away, ICE raid the brothel. Kate chases Viktor but when he mentions he is trying to rescue his daughter, she lets him escape. Nadia and Viktor are reunited in New York City. Karpovich gives the name of the Manila brothel to his doctor. ICE raid the brothel and Dr Smith is arrested. However, Tommy is warned by a local police officer on the take and Annie and the other children are smuggled out just in time. The doctor gives the authorities Karpovich’s name. Meanwhile, Annie and the other children are locked in a shipping container, awaiting their transportation. Due to missing paperwork and Tommy’s execution, the container is abandoned on the docks. Having no luck finding any new leads, Kate poses as a client on Karpovich’s dating website and catches the attention of one of Karpovich’s men. She pretends to travel from Moscow and is taken to the New York brothel. With Kate inside, ICE raid the building once Karpovich arrives. Karpovich is killed, along with several of his men. Nadia and Viktor are rescued. In Manila, another of Annie’s captors has a change of heart upon watching his daughter play. He calls the police and alerts them about the shipping container. Annie is rescued, along with the other children, and reunited with her parents. Karpovich’s empire is dismantled, many other girls are rescued and his associates arrested. Human Trafficking closes with images of people walking through crowded city streets, as a closing title caption announces that human trafficking is the third-most profitable criminal business in the world, with as many as 800,000 victims each year. 

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In Chicago, Harper (Taye Diggs) is an up-and-coming author whose debut novel, Unfinished Business, has been selected by Oprah's Book Club. Harper's devoted girlfriend Robyn (Sanaa Lathan) is frustrated by his unwillingness to commit to her. Harper travels to New York City to spend the weekend with old friends from college, before they all attend the wedding of Lance (Morris Chestnut), a running back for the New York Giants, and Mia (Monica Calhoun). Serving as best man, Harper reunites with his friends Murch (Harold Perrineau) and Jordan (Nia Long), who has passed an advanced copy of Unfinished Business around their inner circle of friends – upon whom the book is based. None of the friends approve of Murch's domineering girlfriend Shelby (Melissa De Sousa), and Harper chastises Quentin (Terrance Howard) for being unable to settle down in a job. The weekend reveals that Quentin has always been a free spirit, Lance has renounced his womanizing ways, Harper is unsure about remaining a bachelor, and Murch has never been able to keep a secret. Flashbacks to their college days reveal that Lance met Mia through Harper, who almost slept with Jordan. Quentin antagonizes Lance about Mia, whom Lance believes has never been with another man. Learning Lance has a copy of his book, Harper worries he will discover that Harper and Mia had a one-night stand in college. Confronting Harper about their mutual attraction, Jordan admits she wants to have sex with him that night, before Robyn arrives for the wedding the next day, and they share a kiss. Lance confronts Harper in the bathroom, but merely thanks him for his friendship; they are interrupted before Harper can come clean. As the groomsmen depart for the bachelor party, Jordan invites Harper to meet her later, and Murch finally stands up to Shelby. At the party, Harper steals Lance's copy of "Unfinished Business", to the disgust of Quentin, who has deduced Harper's secret. As the party gets increasingly drunk, Murch falls for one of the strippers, Candy (Regina Hall), and Harper calls Jordan, accepting her invitation. Finding the book in Harper's coat, Lance reads it, realizing that Mia slept with Harper in college to get back at Lance for his numerous infidelities. Enraged, Lance attacks Harper and almost throws him off the balcony, but Quentin talks him down, and Lance calls off the wedding. A badly beaten Harper arrives at Jordan's apartment. He blames her for circulating the book, but Jordan berates him for airing his own “dirty laundry” and leading her on. The next day, Harper meets Robyn at the airport. She notices his injuries, and Harper confesses everything. Disappointed in him, Robyn prepares to leave, but Harper declares how much he needs her, and she reluctantly agrees to help him save the wedding. Arriving at the church with Candy, Murch breaks up with Shelby. Lance arrives, and his friends try desperately to stop him before he can tell his parents the wedding is off. Harper – who has never agreed with Lance's religious devotion – halts him by asking him to pray. While Robyn and Jordan tend to Mia, who is oblivious to the previous night's events, Harper begs for Lance's forgiveness and assures him of his and Mia's love. After forcing Harper to pray with him, a tearful Lance proceeds with the wedding. Harper gives a heartfelt speech praising Mia and Lance's love, earning his friends’ forgiveness. Shelby pushes a bridesmaid out of the way to seize the bouquet, while Quentin catches the garter. Jordan finds closure with Harper, telling him Robyn is the woman for him. On the dance floor, Harper thanks Robyn for her help and, in front of the entire wedding party asks her to marry him; she says yes. The film ends as everyone dances the electric slide. In a post- credit scene, Shelby and Quentin wake up in bed together, to their shock and disgust. 

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The novel is told entirely from the points of view of its elephant characters. Much like real elephants, all female elephants (cows) and prepubescent males (bulls) live in matrilineal family groups, and mature male elephants are loners. The main characters in the novel are mostly from the "She-S" family, into which Mud, a young cow who is pregnant with her first calf, has been adopted. Mud is blessed with visionary powers and can occasionally see into the future. Thrown into a drought, with human poachers becoming increasingly common, Mud and her family must find the legendary "Safe Place" where drought and poachers do not come. The "White Bone," a rib of a newborn elephant, is rumored to be lying somewhere in the savannah and is said to point in the direction of the Safe Place. After a slaughter which leaves most of Mud's adoptive family dead and her best friend, Date Bed, missing, Mud and the remaining She-S elephants set off to find the White Bone and Date Bed. The novel is rather nihilistic, as it is unlikely that any of the characters ever reach the Safe Place, with a few possible exceptions. Hence, it is considered a powerful social commentary on the plight of endangered animals, showing their situation to be somewhat hopeless. Another main theme of the novel is the importance of family ties, and the fact that Mud, as an adopted member of the She-S family, feels alienated from the other elephants throughout. Another theme of the novel acknowledges the old saying, "An elephant never forgets." The novel implies that elephants will eventually go senile, but as most are killed before their prime, the saying is usually true. The elephants are capable of remembering every minute detail of their lives, unlike humans, who tend to remember important events most strongly. 

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(This summary is based on the Lambeth Palace text.) Gyngelayne is raised in the forest by his mother, who tries to keep him away from arms since she fears that her 'wild' son might otherwise come to harm. Gyngelayne is never told his real name by his mother. Instead, she calls him ‘Bewfiȝ’, since he is 'gentle of body' and has an attractive face. One day, Gyngelayne finds a dead knight in the forest. He dons the man's armour and goes to Glastonbury, where King Arthur is holding court. There he asks Arthur to dub him a knight although his upbringing is uncourtly. Arthur is so pleased by young Gyngelayne's sight that he gives him a name – Libeaus Desconus, ‘The Fair Unknown’ – and knights him that same day. Libeaus at once asks King Arthur if he might be offered the first challenge for which the king is required to provide a champion. Soon a fair maiden, Ellyne, and a dwarf, Theodeley, come riding in. They have been sent by the lady of Synadowne, who has been imprisoned. Cannot Arthur send a knight to free her mistress? When Arthur grants the youthful Libeaus the quest, the maiden is angered, yet the king refuses to replace Libeaus with another knight. Libeaus, Ellyne, and the dwarf set off on their journey, in acrimony. On the third day, Libeaus defeats a knight called Syr William Delaraunche, who had never yet been overcome in combat. Only now does Ellyne's ridicule of Lybeaus subside. Libeaus sends 'Syr William' to Arthur's court, where he is to tell the king who defeated him. Next morning, Libeaus is attacked by William's three cousins. He breaks one's thigh, another's arm and forces them all to go to Arthur's court, where they are to tell the king by whom they were defeated, and subject themselves to him. In a wild forest, Libeaus saves a maiden from two giants and sends their heads to King Arthur. The maiden's father, an earl, offers Libeaus his daughter's hand in marriage, but Libeaus declines because he has a mission to accomplish. He is then given beautiful armour and a fine steed and he, the maiden Ellyne and the dwarf continue on their journey. Libeaus next defeats the Lord of Cardiff, winning a gyrfalcon, a scene that bears striking similarities with an episode in Chrétien de Troyes' twelfth century romance Erec and Enide, retold in the Welsh Mabinogion tale Gereint and Enid.Gantz, Jeffrey. 1976. The Mabinogion. Penguin Books Limited. pp 263–268. He has the prize taken to Arthur, who is so satisfied with his knight that he decides to send him a hundred pounds. Libeaus uses the gold to hold a forty-days feast, and then moves on with his companions. In a forest, Libeaus catches a many- coloured hunting dog at Ellyne's request. A man called Sir Otis claims that it is his, but Libeaus refuses to give it up. He soon finds himself faced by a full-fledged army, which he defeats single-handedly. Sir Otis, too, is sent to Arthur's court. And after many adventures in Ireland and Wales, Libeaus arrives at the beautiful Isle of Gold ('Jl de Ore'), a city of castles and palaces. Its lady is besieged by a Saracen giant called Maugys. After a long and eventful fight, Libeaus is able to kill the giant. La Dame Amour, Lady of the Island, offers the hero her love, and lordship over the Jl de Ore. Libeaus gladly accepts, and for twelve months he lives a life of 'recreauntise'. When one day Libeaus meets the maiden Ellyne, she points out to Libeaus that he has been disloyal to his lord in abandoning his quest. He feels deeply ashamed and leaves the Jl de Ore. With him he takes his horse, his armour and Jurflete, La Dame Amour's steward, whom he makes his squire. They travel onwards, he, Ellyne and his new squire, towards Synadowne. Arriving at Synadowne at last, Libeaus defeats Lanwarde, the city's steward, who has the habit of fighting every knight who comes to the city looking for a place to stay. Libeaus asks who the knight is who is holding the Lady of Synadowne prisoner. Lanwarde informs Libeaus that the Lady of Synadowne is being held captive not by any knight but by two clerics who practice black magic (‘nigermansye’): :"Quod Lambert, 'Be Seint John! :Knyght, sir, is ther none :That durste hir away lede. :Twoo clerkys ben hir foone, :Fekyll off bloode and bone, :That hauyth y-doo this dede." Mills, M (Ed). 1969. Lambeth Palace MS 306 version, lines 1749–1754. Lanwarde informs Libeaus that these two clerics, called Jrayne and Mabon, have created a 'paleys', an edifice which no nobleman dares enter, and they say that they will kill the lady unless she transfers all of her power to Mabon. Next morning, Libeaus enters this palace and, leading his horse by the reins, finds nobody there but minstrels playing their music. Going deeper into the palace, searching for someone to fight with, he passes magnificent columns and stained glass windows and sits down on the raised platform at the far end of the space. The minstrels who had been playing now vanish, the earth shakes, and stones fall down. On the field outside appear the two clerics, Mabon and Jrayne, armed and on horseback. They are intent on killing Libeaus, who does battle with them both, but Jrayne disappears before Libeaus can deal him the final blow: he was too busy slaying Mabon, 'the more shreweos'. Depressed, Libeaus sits down in the palace hall: Jrayne might well cause him trouble in the future. While Libeaus contemplates his situation, a window appears in one of the walls, and a serpent with wings and a woman's face crawls through. It speaks, asserting that it is 'young', and then kisses a terrified Libeaus. Consequently, it changes into a beautiful young woman: the Lady of Synadowne. She thanks Libeaus for freeing her, and tells him that he has slain both of the evil clerks. She also tells him that the only way the curse which had changed her into a serpent could be lifted was by kissing Gawain or someone else of his kin. Then the lady offers herself and her many possessions to Libeaus, who gladly accepts. After seven joyous days in Synadowne, Libeaus and the Lady of Synadowne go to King Arthur's court, where Arthur grants Libeaus the lady's hand. A forty-day feast follows, after which the newly-weds are escorted back to Synadowne by Arthur and his knights, where they live happily together for many years. 

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Four years after the events of Digimon Adventure, the Digital World is invaded by the Digimon Emperor, who is enslaving Digimon with the Dark Rings while building Control Spires that negate Digivolution. To fight him, three new DigiDestined are recruited, each gaining an ancient Digimon for a partner. The three, along with T.K. and Kari, each possess a D-3, a new type of Digivice that allows them to open a gate to be transported to the Digital World through any computer. They are also given D-Terminals that hold Crest- themed Digi-Eggs that allow their Digimon partners to undergo Armor Digivolution to counter the presence of Control Spires. The Digimon Emperor, revealed to be boy genius Ken Ichijoji, flees to the Digital World. Assisted by Ken's partner, Wormmon, the DigiDestined defeat Ken. While the DigiDestined rebuild the Digital World, Davis, Yolei, and Cody unlock normal Digivolution. At the same, they ally themselves with a reformed Ken, who joins the team to fight Arukenimon, a Digimon who revives the Control Spires as other Digimon. When the Control Spire Digimon prove to be stronger than them, the DigiDestined learn DNA Digivolution, which enable two champion-level Digimon to merge into a stronger ultimate-level one. When Arukenimon creates BlackWarGreymon, he begins to destroy each Destiny Stones, hoping to fight Azulongmon, who appears when each Stone is destroyed. After BlackWarGreymon flees, Azulongmon warns the DigiDestined about an impending threat behind Arukenimon and Mummymon. During Christmas, Control Spires appear across the human world, bringing Digimon with them. While the DigiDestined set off with Imperialdramon to destroy them with the help of the international DigiDestined, Arukenimon and Mummymon begin kidnapping several children for Yukio Oikawa, a friend of Cody's father who dreams of entering the Digital World. Once the DigiDestined return to Japan, they fight the Daemon Corps, and their leader, Daemon, while Oikawa uses the Dark Spore inside Ken to implant them into the children. After imprisoning Daemon in the Dark Ocean, BlackWarGreymon returns to redeem himself after a battle between Imperialdramon and WarGreymon. BlackWarGreymon sacrifices himself to seal the portal to the Digital World at Highton View Terrace, before Oikawa and the kids can transport there. The DigiDestined are transported to a Dream World with Oikawa and the kids and learn he was controlled by Myotismon. Myotismon splits from Oikawa and uses the energy from the Dark Spores to be reborn as MaloMyotismon. With help from the DigiDestined all over the world, the DigiDestined defeat MaloMyotismon and Oikawa sacrifices himself to rebuild the Digital World. Twenty five years later, humans and Digimon live together. 

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Brothers Joe (George Raft) and Paul Fabrini (Humphrey Bogart) are independent truck drivers who make a meager living transporting goods. Joe convinces Paul to start their own small, one-truck business, staying one step ahead of loan shark Farnsworth (an uncredited Charles Halton), who is trying to repossess their truck. At a diner, Joe is attracted to waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan). Later, on their way to Los Angeles, the brothers pick up a hitchhiker; Joe is pleased when it turns out to be Cassie, who quit after her boss tried to get a bit too friendly with her. They park at a diner for a meal and chat with a trucker acquaintance, McNamara, who is extremely overworked and tired; later, back on the road, the brothers and Cassie find themselves driving behind McNamara and soon become aware that he must be asleep at the wheel. They put themselves in danger trying to awaken him, but McNamara's truck goes off the road and explodes in flames. At his home just outside of Los Angeles, Paul is reunited with his patient though worried wife, Pearl (Gale Page), who would rather have Paul settle down in a safer, more regular job. Paul is troubled about his future, too, but will not leave his brother "out on a limb as long as he thinks we have a chance in this business". In the city, Joe finds Cassie a place to stay. They talk and begin to establish a relationship. The next morning, from a window overlooking the market, Joe's good friend Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale, Sr.), watches Joe get into a brief fistfight. Ed is a trucking business owner and former driver; he calls Joe up to his office and offers him a job. Joe insists on remaining independent. Ed's wife, Lana Carlsen (Ida Lupino) has wanted Joe for years but he has always rebuffed her advances. Ed gives Joe a tip on a load which results in the brothers earning enough money to finally pay off Farnsworth. On the return trip, Paul falls asleep at the wheel, causing an accident which costs him his right arm and wrecks the truck. When Ed hires Joe as a driver, Lana persuades her husband to make him the traffic manager instead; she starts dropping by the office frequently. Joe continues to spurn her advances. One night, when Lana drives a drunk, unconscious Ed home from a party, she murders him on impulse, by leaving him in the garage with the car motor still idling. When the police investigate, it appears to be an accident. She later gives Joe a half-interest as a partner in the business in a subsequent attempt to attract him. Paul has been bitter over his inability to land a proper job in order to support his wife and plan a family. He returns to work as a dispatcher for Joe. Joe does a fine job managing the business but, when Lana learns he plans to marry Cassie, she becomes so enraged she reveals to him that she killed Ed so that she could have him. She then goes to the police, accusing Joe of forcing her to help commit murder. During the trial, the weight of circumstantial evidence looks bad for Joe, but a guilt-ridden Lana breaks down on the witness stand, laughing hysterically and claiming the electric garage doors made her do it. After Lana is determined to be insane, the case is dismissed. Joe considers going back to the road, but Cassie, Paul - who happily announces that Pearl and he are having a baby - and the boys manage to convince him otherwise. He thus returns to the trucking business that he had dreamed of owning, with his brother as traffic manager and Cassie as his bride-to-be. 

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Nora, a waitress with two teenage daughters, struggles to raise them in a trailer park as a single parent after her husband abandons the family. After repeatedly skipping school to go on dates Trudi, the elder daughter, quits school and gets a job as a waitress alongside her mother. Meanwhile, the younger daughter, Shade, spends most of her time watching the movies of Mexican film star Elvia Rivero and dreams of finding a boyfriend for her mother. After being dumped by the boy she was seeing, Trudi meets Dank, a British petrologist, at the restaurant where she's working. They eventually sleep together, and she tells him that her promiscuity is caused by the fact that she lost her virginity in a gang rape perpetrated by local boys she knew. Returning home the following night, her mother tells her that she has one month to find a new home because Trudi has slept with a man. Shade tries to seduce Darius, her friend, by dressing up in a wig and costume à la Olivia Newton-John, Darius's supposed dream girl, at her sister's suggestion. After her seduction attempt fails, presumably because he is gay, she runs into Javier, the local projectionist, who teases her over her outfit before giving her a ride home on his bike. Afterwards she sets her mother up on a date with Raymond, a married man who was revealed earlier in the film to be having an intermittent affair with her mother. As they do not want to reveal their connection to the eavesdropping Shade, they make wry conversation where Raymond claims to work as a gravedigger and Nora as a brain surgeon. Trudi discovers she is pregnant with Dank's child, but when he fails to return from an expedition, decides to go to Dallas and give up her child for adoption rather than have an abortion. While Trudi is away, Nora begins an affair with Hamlet Humphrey, a man who installs satellite dishes, while the girls' biological father, John, reappears. Shade falls in love with Javier and tries to reconnect with her father. Initially disturbed by Hamlet Humphrey, she warms to him after he reveals that he is familiar with the movies of Elvia Rivero and compares Nora to her. Shade goes to Dallas with her mother and Hamlet for the birth of Trudi's baby. After giving birth to a daughter, Trudi tells Shade that she'll be staying in the city, as their home holds too many bad memories for her. On their way home, Shade spots a sign advertising day- glo rocks like the one Dank gave her sister. She goes to confront Dank but instead learns that he was killed in an accident while looking for rocks. Walking off into the desert, Shade realizes that Dank always loved Trudi and vows to eventually tell her what happened. 

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The work expresses the author's atheism by having a dying man (a libertine) tell a priest about what he views as the mistakes of a pious life. According to John Phillips, Emeritus Professor of French Literature and Culture at London Metropolitan University: > Of all the direct expressions of atheism in Sade's work, the Dialogue... is > probably the most incisive and, at the same time, the most artistically > satisfying... The influence of Sade's Jesuit training in rhetorical debate > is the mainspring of this brilliant dramatic essay, which, as the title > suggests, is not so much theatre as philosophical dialogue. But what makes > the work charming as well as persuasive is the impish humour that lies > behind its characters and situation.Phillips, John (2005). The Marquis de > Sade: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.37-38. > . However, Steven Barbone, of San Diego State University notes that: > We can postulate one of two things: Sade was entirely pleased with this > manuscript and saw no reason to make any changes to it or Sade completely > gave up on the dialogue and had decided to abandon it. The reason for either > of these hypotheses is that the manuscript itself contains almost no trace > of Sade’s editing. It is up to the reader to divine whether the “Dialogue > between the Priest and a Dying Man” is Sade’s position or not. Either way, > it is worth reading even in the very unlikely event that it presents a > position Sade would have repudiated. (This may be the case: near the > beginning of October 1788, Sade himself made a catalogue of his works, and > the “Dialogue” is omitted.) de Sade, Donatien-Alphonse-François. Dialogue > between a priest and a dying man. English version and introduction by Steven > Barbone. Philosophy and Theology, Vol. 12 (2), 2000. 

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As a child, Dragon Eye Morrison undergoes electro-shock treatment for his aggressive behavior. The levels of sheer energy absorbed by his body over the years allow him to channel and conduct electricity. Now an adult, Morrison works in the city as a reptile investigator and has learned to channel his rage through the performance of aggressive guitar-based noise. Meanwhile, Thunderbolt Buddha, a TV repair man turned vigilante, who has the same electro-conductive powers after a childhood accident, goes after crime bosses and gangsters. When both men learn of each other's existence, Thunderbolt Buddha challenges Morrison to a final showdown on the rooftops of Tokyo. 

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Jean Rice, a young London art teacher, travels to a seaside resort (not specified but partly filmed in Morecambe) to visit her family. She is emotionally confused, having had a row with her fiancé, who wants her to emigrate with him to Africa. She also is deeply concerned about the Suez Crisis, having seen her soldier brother go to the war. She has attended a peace rally in Trafalgar Square that was directed against prime minister Anthony Eden. She finds that the resort has declined from its pre-war heyday and is now drawing waning crowds, despite being in mid-season. The music-hall act of her father Archie Rice (Olivier) plays to a small number of increasingly uninterested spectators. Her family is deeply dysfunctional and her beloved grandfather, once one of the leading stars of the music hall, lives in quiet retirement with his daughter-in-law and grandson. Jean goes to the theatre where her father is playing. As well as being an undischarged bankrupt and a semi-alcoholic, he is desperately short of money and is hounded by creditors—the income-tax people as well as his unpaid cast. He is adored by his cynical son and watched with mild amusement by his father, but his relationship with Phoebe, his second wife, is strained. He is a womaniser, and she is well aware of his tendencies, openly commenting on them to the rest of the family. She is often found drinking heavily. With his latest show drawing to a close, Archie is desperate to secure a new show for the winter season. While acting as master of ceremonies at a Miss Great Britain beauty contest, he charms Tina Lapford, the young woman who finished in second place. Soon he is involved in an affair with her. Her wealthy and ambitious parents want her to have an entertainment career and are willing to put up the money for Archie's new show, if it includes her. They shake hands on the deal. While this is going on, the radio reports that Archie's son Mick has been captured by the Egyptians at Suez after a major firefight. Archie seems oblivious of the news and the distress of his family. He is fixated with his dream of restarting his stalled career and his affair. His daughter discovers the affair and tells her grandfather. Acting out of what he believes are his son's best interests, he goes to the girl's parents and tells them that Archie is already married and bankrupt. They swiftly break off all connections with him, ending their financing for his next show. While he is still digesting this turn of events, news arrives that Archie's son has been killed in Egypt. His body is returned and a civic commemoration is attended by the whole town. It is reported that he will be awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions. Archie is still too busy fixating on his career to notice how his family is falling apart at the news. His brother-in-law wants to help the family to relocate to Canada and help him run a hotel but Archie rebuffs him. Instead he persuades an impresario to promote a new show, with his father as the headline attraction. His father, despite his age, is still extremely popular, and there is a public demand for his return. On the opening night, his father collapses and dies, completing the estrangement of the family. His wife and son are determined to go to Canada, and Archie is set on staying in Britain, even if it means going to jail. The film ends with Archie making an apparently final performance to an apathetic audience. 

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While the rest of his high school graduating class is heading to the same old kind of college, skateboarder Eric Rivers and his best friends, Dustin, a goal-oriented workaholic, and misfit slacker Matt have one last summer roadtrip together to follow their dream of getting noticed by the professional skateboarding world—and getting paid to skate. When skating legend Jimmy Wilson's skate demo tour hits town, the boys figure that as soon as he sees their fierce tricks, he'll sign them up for his renowned skate team immediately, right? Unfortunately, the guys are intercepted by Jimmy's road manager and they can't get their foot in the door, much less their boards. But they do get some free advice: keep skating, stay true to yourself, and stay in the game—if you're good, you'll get noticed. Following their dream—and Jimmy's national tour—Eric, Dustin and Matt start their own skate team, reluctantly sponsored by Dustin and his college fund. After recruiting laid-back ladies man Lou "Sweet Lou" Singer to join their crew and provide the van for their tour, team Super Duper launches the ride of their lives in an outrageous road trip from Chicago to Santa Monica. The professional scene doesn't exactly welcome nobody, but these outsiders stick together through extreme misadventures. In their quest to go pro, they meet professional vert skating champions Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist and Pierre Luc Gagnon, skate pro Bam Margera and his crew Preston Lacy, Ehren Danger McGhehey and Jason Wee Man Acuña, as well as sexy skate chick Jamie as they grind handrails across America and force the skateboarding world to give 'em a piece of the action.Plot Summary for 'Grind' (2003). IMDb. Retrieved 2009-01-18. 

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The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those he loved as a child and as an adult. The novel is written as a reflective journal; the setting always in flux, wholly dependent upon the topic or theme Max feels inclined to write about. Despite the constant fluctuations, Max returns to three settings: his childhood memories of the Graces--a wealthy middle-class family living in a rented cottage home, the "Cedars"--during the summer holidays; the months leading up to the death of his wife, Anna; and his present stay at the Cedars cottage home in Ballyless--where he has retreated since Anna's death. These three settings are heavily diced and jumbled together for the novel's entire duration. Max's final days with Anna were awkward; Max does not know how to act with his soon-to-be-dead wife. Scenes of Anna's dying days are more full of commentary than with actual details, as are most of the novel's settings. It's through these commentaries that we learn of Max's choice to return to the cottage of his childhood memories (after Anna's death), confirming that a room would be available for residence during a visit with his adult daughter, Claire. We learn of the Cedars' current house-maid, Miss Vavasour, and her other tenant: a retired army Colonel, often described as a background character (even during his important role in the denouement). The Colonel is also seen, at the beginning of Max's stay, to have a crush on Miss Vavasour; Max suspects Miss Vavasour had entertained the Colonel's slight infatuation prior to Max's own arrival. Despite the actual present day setting of the novel (everything is written by Max, after Anna's death, while he stays in the Cedars' house), the underlying motivation to Max's redaction of memories, the single setting which ties the novel together, are Max's childhood memories. With Max's unreliable, unorganised and omitted iteration of events, we gradually learn the names of the Graces: Chloe, the wild daughter; Myles, the mute brother; Connie, the mother; Carlo, the father; and finally the twins' nursemaid, Rose. After brief encounters, and fruitless moments of curiosity, Max becomes infatuated with Connie Grace upon first sight; seeing her lounging at the beach launches him to acquaint Chloe and Myles in, what Max stipulates to have been a conscious effort to get inside the Cedars, hence, closer to Mrs. Grace. He succeeds. Later, Max recounts being invited on a picnic--for what reasons or what specific time during the summer is never explicitly stated--where Max, in awe, catches an unkempt glance at her pelvic area. This day of "illicit invitation" climaxes when Max is pulled to the ground, and snuggled closely with Connie and Rose in a game of hide-and-seek. The latter half of his summer memories (the relation of Max's memories in the second part of the novel), however, revolve around Max's awkward relationship with Chloe: a girl with a spastic personality and blunt demeanor whom Max describes as one who "[does] not play, on her own or otherwise". Chloe is shown as a volatile character: flagrantly kissing Max in a Cinema, rough-housing with her brother Myles, and what was hinted as hypersexuality earlier, is quite possibly confirmed as hypersexuality in the book's final moments. We soon learn that Chloe and Myles like to tease Rose, who is young and timid enough to feel bullied. Max, another day, climbs a tree in the yard of the Cedars' house, and soon spots Rose crying not too far from him. Mrs. Grace soon emerges, comforting Rose. Max overhears (rather, Max remembers overhearing) key words from their conversation: "love him" and "Mr. Grace". Assuming this to mean Rose and Mr. Grace are having an affair, he tells Chloe and Myles. The ending of the book entwines the exact moment of Anna's death with Chloe and Myles drowning in the sea itself as Max and Rose look on. Max, done with his childhood memories, offers a final memory of a near-death episode while he was inebriated. The Colonel does not physically save Max, rather finds him knocked unconscious by a rock (from a drunken stumble). His daughter scolds him at the hospital, assumingly being told he nearly killed himself, and tells him to come home with her. It is revealed at this point that Miss Vavasour is Rose herself and she was in love with Mrs. Grace. Max finishes with a redaction of himself standing in the sea after Anna's death (an allegory is made between crashing waves and tumultuous periods of his life). We are to assume that he will leave the Cedars' home to be cared for by his daughter, Claire. 

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While other kids at the elite North Point Academy spend countless hours studying, Handsome Davis sees it as nothing more than a system of control over one's mind. That's why Handsome and his three best friends, Sammy, Victor and the cribsheet genius Applebee, have banded together and found ways to cheat on their tests all through their school years. Everything had been going along smoothly until the gang entered their final year of high school and the stakes were upped by the school's principal, Mrs. Stark. If they get caught cheating again Stark will make a note in their permanent records and possibly kill their chances of getting into college. But can Handsome convince his pals to pull off one last great cheat with him, outsmarting Stark and the system, even if it means possibly destroying their friendships? 

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This booklet about badgers features trivia questions, a giant poster, and profiles of many of the badger characters that are featured in the series. They include cartoons, fun facts, and the story information. The booklet was illustrated by Peter Standley. 

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A spaceship, propelled by a prototype photon engine, sets off for Venus, which at that time, is an enigmatic and unexplored planet covered by clouds. The tasks of the crew are a) to test the prototype engine in field conditions and b) to locate and set radio beacons on the so called "Uranium Golconda" (a place with incredibly large heavy metals deposits), presumably, found somewhere on the second planet of the Solar System. As the crew ventures into the depths of Venus, unknown dangers take them out one by one, so only four of six return home after accomplishing the mission — all badly damaged, both physically and mentally. However, their feat was the first milestone in colonizing Venus and the first step into the 22nd century. 

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The first of the film's four parts is titled Rumble. The events start with two groups of rival teenagers hanging out in a bar, playing pool. They end up fighting and the main character Park Sung-bin accidentally kills another youth. He is thrown to prison for the next seven years. The second part is titled Nightmare after the dreams Sung-bin still has about the man he killed. Sung-bin is trying to get back on track after being released from prison. He manages to get a job in a garage with the help of his brother, but his father still seems to loathe him for his past misdeeds. Eventually Sung- bin ends up saving a local crime boss, Kim Tae-hoon from a brutal beating and gets a job from him. The next segment, Modern Man, intermixes fake documentary style interviews with a long fight between Kim Tae-hoon and Suk-hwan, an old friend of Sung-bin who was with him on the night that Sung-bin killed the man. Suk-hwan is now a police officer and his part of the interview tells about his job fighting crime while Kim Tae-hoon's interview segments show him speaking about his career in crime. The last, longest segment is titled Die Bad. Sung- bin is taking control of his own group after Kim Tae-hoon is taken to prison. Sung-bin recruits a gang of youths, including Suk-hwan's brother, to serve as knife fodder in largely meaningless fights. In the end, Suk-hwan confronts and kills Sung-bin, but his brother is also killed. 

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The movie begins with old film footage of World War II with a narrator explaining that Germany produced hundreds of U-boats to control the Atlantic. In 1942, groups of U-boats known as "wolfpacks" sank over 1,000 Allied ships. The Germans began winning the war and if they continue destroying the Allies, Europe will fall. In 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill declared that stopping the U-boats was their main priority. With new technology and the United States committed to the war, the Allies begin destroying the U-boats and bringing an end to the wolfpacks. In June 1943, Lt. Cmdr. Randall Sullivan (Caan) talks about his upcoming mission with Admiral Kentz (Berkeley). Kentz asks about Sullivan's COB Nathan Travers (Macy) and says he's a good man and Sullivan could learn something from him and bids Sullivan farewell. Meanwhile, Travers prepares to leave home as his wife Rachel (Holly) makes him promise to come home safe. Two months later, Travers is on board the fictional USS Swordfish (based on the real submarine in World War II), captained by Sullivan where they do constant drill exercises. Meanwhile, the fictional U-429 (based on the real U-429 submarine), captained by Jonas Herdt (Schweiger), momentarily survives and destroys an American destroyer. After playing chess with his watch officer Ludwig Cremer (Kretschmann), Jonas receives a message from home that Hamburg got bombed, where his daughter's school was destroyed and there were no survivors, implying that she died. On the Swordfish, XO Teddy Goodman (Gregg) becomes increasingly sick with a rash on his stomach, which the doctor believes is meningitis, a contagious disease that can be fatal in some cases. Unknown to the crew, Sullivan has a rash on his arm, showing that he's contracted meningitis as well. Another U-boat, the U-821, sinks the British merchant vessel Achilles. Radio operator Virgil Wright (Huntington) hears music played by Glenn Miller from the U-821, and Sullivan prepares the crew to attack. They manage to destroy the U-821, but the U-boat fires a torpedo before being hit. The torpedo hits near and damages the Swordfish, killing most of the crew, including Goodman, who dies from his sickness. Travers, Sullivan and six other crew members: Wright, Abers (Sisto), Ox (Gallagher), Miller (Somerholder), Cooper (Giovinazzo) and Romano (Morgan) abandon ship and are taken prisoner by the U-429. They're split up in two groups: Travers, Ox, Cooper and Miller in the bow and Sullivan, Wright, Abers and Romano in the stern. Wright nurses Sullivan and discovers his rash, where Abers recognizes it as meningitis and the group realizes that if the Germans don't kill them, the disease will. Days later, when the Germans prepare to attack an American destroyer, the fictional USS Logan (based on the real ), Travers and his group break free and stop the launch. The Logan attacks the U-429 with depth charges that makes Sullivan's group break free too, where Sullivan gets killed in the process. Meanwhile, the meningitis spreads and kills two thirds of the German crew and Romano. Later on, Travers has an hallucination of Rachel, who reminds him of his promise to come home. With no other choice, Jonas decides to have Travers' men work with his crew in order to save them all by going to the US coast and be taken into custody. As both crews reluctantly work together, Jonas explains to Travers that he saved Travers' men because it was protocol to capture only the captain and COB of an enemy ship. He personally saved all of them because he's grown tired of the war and he felt strong for himself by saving lives instead of taking them. Jonas says if they come across either enemy, they must guarantee their men will go home. During their travel to the US coast, Klause (Heger), the U-429's quartermaster, becomes disillusioned with Jonas working with the Americans and orchestrates a mutiny, along with two other crew members named Bauer and Christophe. Abers and Wright subdue Christophe, who makes a distress call to other U-boats, and engineer Hans (Thorsen) knocks out Bauer to save Ox. Klause unsuccessfully attempts to use a torpedo to blow up the boat and stabs Jonas in the back until Travers snaps his neck, killing him. With his dying breath, Jonas gives command of the boat to Cremer. The crew decides to make contact with the Logan but they're attacked by the U-1221, another U-boat that responded to the distress call. Enduring heavy damage as they evade every torpedo attack, the crew uses the last torpedo to try to destroy the U-1221, but it doesn't detonate. The Logan locates and destroys the U-1221 with its cannons. When Travers makes contact with the Logan, Captain Samuel Littleton (Ellis) orders Travers to take the Enigma. Travers falsifies that they're sinking and disconnects with the Logan, keeping his promise to Cremer to never let the U-429 be captured. The crew floods the boat and are rescued by the Logan. Returning home, Travers argues with Kentz about the Germans saving their lives. Kentz says the Germans are still the enemy but he'll do his best to have them taken care of. Travers and Rachel are reunited and they go visit Cremer in a POW compound, where Rachel thanks Cremer for saving her husband's life. Travers gives him cigarettes and tells Cremer it's good to see him as Travers leaves and Cremer watches on. 

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The film's main character is Byeong-gu, a man who believes that aliens from Andromeda are about to attack Earth and that he is the only one who can prevent them. With his childlike circus-performer girlfriend, he kidnaps a powerful pharmaceutical executive whom he believes to be a top ranking extraterrestrial able to contact the Andromedan prince during the upcoming eclipse. After imprisoning the man in his basement workshop, Byeong- gu proceeds to torture him. It soon appears that the executive's company poisoned Byeong-gu's mother in a pharmaceuticals test, and that it is vengeance fueled psychosis that causes Byeong-gu to believe the executive is an alien. When a detective comes calling to investigate the disappearance, the executive tries to escape but is thwarted by the psychotic Byeong-gu. The detective at first finds nothing unusual but on his way out sees Byeong-gu's dog (appropriately named Earth) gnawing on the bones of his master's past victims. After contacting a partner in the police force he is killed by Byeong-gu's bees, is hacked up and fed to the dog. Byeong-gu then crucifies the executive and breaks his leg with the back of his axe, to punish him for his attempted escape. In a desperate move, the executive convinces Byeong-gu that the bottle of benzene in his car trunk is the antidote for his comatose mother. As Byeong-gu races to the hospital to deliver the antidote, the executive frees himself by pulling his hands through the nails. He then travels deeper into his captor’s lair, finding evidence of his grim research. Photos of mutilated corpses are littered with blood scrawled notebooks, while hands and brains of past ‘subjects’ reside in jars. Reading through the journals the executive discovers Byeong-gu's traumatic past: his father was a coal miner who lost one of his arms due to his dangerous work and was killed by his wife when he attempted to attack her and his son. The child was beaten in school and was a victim of the sadistic whims of his cruel teachers. He showed early signs of violence, such as stabbing a fellow school mate with a kitchen knife. His mother was then poisoned in the aforementioned incident and at a protest his former girlfriend was beaten to death. He slowly went mad from the violence that surrounded him. As this is happening, the dead detective's partner arrives and finds the frantic executive. And Byeong-gu, after desperately rushing to the hospital to give the 'antidote' to his comatose mother, killing her, becomes ever more enraged. He returns home to kill the alien, only to find the detective there as well. After a brief struggle and a bizarre turn of events, he captures both of them and plans on killing them both. The frantic executive then admits to being an alien and proceeds to spin an outlandish tale which stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs, about how his race was originally trying to save humanity by experimenting on the genetic code of his mother. He also agrees, in what appears to be a time-buying move, to contact the alien prince at the pharmaceutical company factory. Byeong-gu leaves the detective all his notes, saying that if he does not make it, he will have the responsibility of saving the planet. At the factory, the executive triggers a computer controlled robotic arm to kill Byeong-gu's girlfriend, and after a long struggle, he beats his captor almost to death. When the police arrive, they shoot Byeong- gu, and as he bleeds to death he wonders aloud, "Now who will save the earth?" When the aliens do arrive and beam up the executive aboard their ship, we learn he is in fact the alien king himself. Disgusted and angered by the torture and corruption and evils of the world, he deems Earth a failed experiment and blasts it from creation. As the credits roll still photographs recap the entire journey of Byeong-gu's life, focusing instead on the beautiful, happy moments of a young boy and man with his father and mother and girlfriend. 

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Playtime set in a futuristic Paris dominated by a hyper consumerism society, the story is structured in six sequences, linked by two characters who repeatedly encounter one another in the course of a day: Barbara, a young American tourist visiting Paris with a group composed primarily of middle-aged American women, and Monsieur Hulot, a befuddled Frenchman lost in the new modernity of Paris. The sequences are as follows: * The Airport: the American tour group arrives at the ultra-modern and impersonal Orly Airport. * The Offices: M. Hulot arrives at one of the glass and steel buildings for an important meeting, but gets lost in a maze of disguised rooms and offices, eventually stumbling into a trade exhibition of lookalike business office designs and furniture nearly identical to those in the rest of the building. Jacques Tati's M. Hulot in "Tativille." * The Trade Exhibition: M. Hulot and the American tourists are introduced to the latest modern gadgets, including a door that slams "in golden silence" and a broom with headlights, while the Paris of legend goes all but unnoticed save for a flower-seller's stall and a single reflection of the Eiffel Tower in a glass door. * The Apartments: as night falls, M. Hulot meets an old friend who invites him to his sparsely furnished, ultra-modern and glass-fronted flat. This sequence is filmed entirely from the street, observing Hulot and other building residents through uncurtained floor-to-ceiling picture windows. * The Royal Garden: This sequence takes up almost the entire second half of the film. At the restaurant, Hulot reunites with several characters he has periodically encountered during the day, along with a few new ones, including a nostalgic ballad singer and a boisterous American businessman. * The Carousel of Cars: Hulot buys Barbara two small gifts as mementos of Paris before her departure. In the midst of a complex ballet of cars in a traffic circle, the tourists' bus returns to the airport. 

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Shasta McNasty focused on three friends—Scott, Dennis and Randy—who are part of the rap rock band Shasta McNasty. After signing to Da Funk Records, the three friends relocate from Chicago to LA where they find out that the label has become defunct. Keeping their advance money that they'd been given, they rent an apartment in Venice Beach where they share a kitchen with their next door neighbor Diana. The first half of the series focused on the band, their landlord, odd jobbing to make rent and generally getting up to mischief, while the second half of the season focused on them working at the local bar for their friend Vern, hoping to get signed by a label again and the developing relationship between Scott and Diana. The series' concluding episode is set ten years later, and is presented as an episode of "Behind the Band 2010" (a parody of Behind the Music). It is revealed that Shasta McNasty did become a famous, highly successful band; nevertheless, ego, addiction, in-fighting, and creative differences took their toll. The series was retooled mid-season, including a month-long break two months after the debut and being renamed Shasta: the characters abandon the hip hop premise and remove narrative devices like breaking the fourth wall. 

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During one particular Hate Week, Oceania switched allies while a public speaker is in the middle of a sentence, although the disruption was minimal: the posters against the previous enemy were deemed to be "sabotage" of Hate Week conducted by Emmanuel Goldstein and his supporters, summarily torn down by the crowd, and quickly replaced with propaganda against the new enemy, thus demonstrating the ease with which the Party directs the hatred of its members. This ease of direction could also be partially attributed to the similarity in the terms "Eastasia" and "Eurasia" because they are more easily confused. All citizens of Oceania are expected to show appropriate enthusiasm during Hate Week, as well as the daily Two Minutes Hate. While participation in this event is not legally required, avoiding or refusing to do so is said to make one appear suspicious to the Thought Police, generally resulting in the vaporisation (execution) of the perpetrator. This ensures that they are against the opposing party and still allied with Big Brother.Dandaneau, Steven P.; Taking it Big: Developing Sociological Consciousness in Postmodern Times Pine Forge Press, p.53, 2001; , Hate Week is celebrated in late summer. The events during that time include waxwork displays, military parades, speeches and lectures. New slogans are also coined and new songs are written. The theme of the Hate Week is called the Hate Song. It is mentioned that a unit from the Fiction Department was assigned to make atrocity pamphlets (falsified reports of atrocities committed by Oceania's enemies against her) designed to stimulate Oceania's populace further into enraged frenzy against all enemies. The aggregate effect of Hate Week thus is to excite the populace to such a point that they "would unquestionably have torn [captured enemy soldiers] to pieces" if given the opportunity. Hate Week is introduced to the reader for the first time in the second paragraph of the first page of Nineteen Eighty-Four; however, at this point in time, readers have no idea what Hate Week is. "It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week."Orwell, George; Nineteen Eighty-Four, page 1, 1948 

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As with every morning since he moved into Savile Row, Willy Fog awakens at 8:00 am and rings for his servant, only to remember that he fired him the previous day for his inability to follow Fog's precise schedule. He has already arranged an interview for a replacement – former circus performer Rigodon, who is even now rushing towards Fog's house to make his 11:00 am appointment. Rigodon is accompanied by his old circus colleague Tico, who hides within his travelling bag, and prompts him through the interview, which gets off to a bad start when Rigodon arrives four minutes late. Nonetheless, Rigodon is hired by Fog as his butler and soon departs for the Reform Club. At the club, the main topic of conversation is the recent theft of £55,000 from the Bank of England which was discussed till the bank's governor Mr. Sullivan arrives and requests a change of topic. Sullivan's off- hand remark that the thief is still in London causes the elderly Lord Guinness to bring up an article in the Morning Chronicle, detailing how it is now possible to travel around the world in eighty days. The article states that one departs London by train for Dover, where one crosses to Calais, and on to Paris. From there, it is a train journey to Brindisi, and the Suez Canal, all within a week. Having rounded the Arabian peninsula, one would arrive in Bombay on day 20 and then a three-day railway journey to Calcutta. Hong Kong is reached on day 33, Yokohama on day 39, and then a mammoth three-week crossing of the Pacific to arrive in San Francisco on day 61, a week-long train crossing to New York City and then finally a nine-day crossing of the Atlantic back to London making it possible to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. The other members of the club laugh at Lord Guinness's suggestion that he would take on the challenge if he were younger, prompting Fog to defend his honor by taking up the task himself. Sullivan bets Fog £5,000 that it is impossible, and additional wagers by three other club members increase this amount to £20,000. He then stuns the club by announcing that he will leave that very evening and promises to return to the club by 8:45 pm on 21 December 1872. Rigodon is less than thrilled to hear the news of their impending trip, having spent his life travelling with the circus. However, he dutifully accompanies his master as they set out, with Tico still in hiding. Little do they know, however, that they are pursued by three individuals determined to halt their progress. Inspector Dix and Constable Bully of Scotland Yard are convinced that Fog is the thief who robbed the Bank of England, and the wicked and conniving Transfer, a saboteur, was hired by Mr. Sullivan to impede Fog's journey in any way. 

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The novel is set about 200 years before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, the protagonist of much of the Vorkosigan series. It deals with the creation of the "Quaddies", genetically modified people who have four arms, the second pair appearing where unmodified humans would have legs. They were intended to be used as a space labor force, superbly adapted to zero-gravity but more or less helpless "downside" in any but the lightest gravitational field. From the point of view of the commercial interests responsible for their creation, they would be highly profitable laborers, requiring none of the special facilities or mandatory time off needed by other humans, whose bodies tend to deteriorate over the long term in weightlessness. They would also be completely beholden to the company for life support and would have no rights as human beings. Legally, the Quaddies are not classed as human but as "post-fetal experimental tissue cultures". The company treats them as chattel slaves. Their access to information is tightly controlled; even their children's stories are about working in space. They can be ordered to reproduce or to have a pregnancy terminated. They are the subject of breeding programs, the company compelling them to mate only with one of the company's choosing, regardless of existing partners. When a new artificial gravity technology renders them both obsolete and a potential political embarrassment to the executives, there are discussions about killing or sterilizing them. Bipedal engineer Leo Graf, who had been assigned to help train them, instead helps them break free. They eventually settle in an initially remote system that gradually becomes a major part of the Nexus. Bujold has stated in the notes of her reprints that Falling Free was the first half of the intended story. The unwritten, second story was to tell how the Quaddies settled into what would be known as "Quaddiespace". Diplomatic Immunity, published in 2002, revisits the subject of the Quaddies, showing the state of their society some 240 years after its foundation. It takes place on Graf Station, named for Leo Graf, who is hero and patriarch to the Quaddies. 

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Kurt Sloane is the younger brother of Eric Sloane, the United States kickboxing world champion. After another successful title defense, Eric is enticed by the media to compete in Thailand, where kickboxing was started, to further establish his legacy. Eric and Kurt travel to Bangkok to fight Tong Po, Thailand's undefeated top fighter. Eric is supremely confident but Kurt is apprehensive, particularly after witnessing Tong Po kicking a concrete pillar to prepare for the fight. Kurt begs his brother not to fight, but Eric dismisses any concerns. The first round is a one-sided affair in which Po dominates Eric with his superior strength. In between rounds, Kurt once again begs Eric to stop, but Eric refuses to give up and gets beaten badly in the second round. Kurt throws in the towel, but Tong Po kicks the towel out of the ring and continues his assault. He viciously strikes Eric in the back with his elbow, immobilizing him, then rips apart Eric's world championship belt. Kurt retrieves the belt and leaves with his brother on a stretcher, but the fight officials leave them on the street and lock them out of the arena. Winston Taylor, a retired US Army special forces member, agrees to help the pair and drives them to the hospital. As a result of Tong Po's brutal elbow to the spine, Eric is paralyzed from the waist down and will never be able to walk again. An enraged Kurt vows to avenge his brother. Taylor tells him about Xian Chow, a famous trainer living in a remote area of Thailand. Although reluctant at first, Xian agrees to train Kurt in the art of Muay Thai. While training, Kurt attempts to foil a criminal organization led by Freddy Li, who continuously harass Mylee - Xian's niece - and steal money from her store. After Kurt beats the thugs in a bar fight under Freddy Li's nose, Xian convinces Freddy Li to arrange a match between Kurt and Tong Po. It is determined that they will fight in the "ancient way": both fighters wrap their hands in hemp rope, which is then coated in resin and dipped in broken glass to make them deadly weapons. Freddy Li arranges to have the fight fixed and borrows $1 million from the crime syndicate's boss to bet on Tong Po. Several days prior to the match, Mylee is beaten and raped by Tong Po, while Eric is kidnapped so that Freddy Li can blackmail Kurt into losing the fight. To save his brother's life, Kurt is instructed by Freddy Li to go the distance with Tong Po before losing the match. He endures a torturous beating, but Xian and Taylor successfully rescue Eric before the fight concludes. Just before the final round, Eric whistles from the crowd and gives Kurt the thumbs-up while leading the crowd to chant “Nuk Soo Kow” (white warrior). With Eric out of danger, Kurt pummels Tong Po viciously and finally defeats him, avenging his brother as Kurt and his friends celebrate his victory. 

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High-school student Sora Hashiba was hospitalized after falling from the fourth floor of his school building. On his first night back in the dormitory, he wakes to find a strange boy addressing him by the name of "Yoru". The stranger identifies himself as "Ran" and says he's Sora's new roommate. The next day, Sora's childhood friend and dorm manager, Matsuri Honjou, informs Sora that the other boy, whom Matsuri identifies as Sunao Fujimori or "Nao-kun", is actually another childhood friend of Sora. Sora doesn't remember meeting Sunao before. In fact, Sora can't remember much of anything regarding his past, and the series follows his quest to regain his memory. Sora soon learns why Sunao identified himself as "Ran" that first night: he and Sora have alternate personalities. Sora's is Yoru, a powerful protector and the lover of the more dependent, feminized Ran. The existence of these alternate personalities, and the relationship between them, has some mysterious connection with Sora's fall from the window and his forgotten past. The alternate personalities' passionate relationship is a far cry from the hostility and distrust between Sora and Sunao. Because Yoru and Ran possess them arbitrarily, Sora and Sunao frequently find themselves in embarrassing situations when they regain control of their minds. Other comical situations arise from Matsuri's efforts to draw Sora and Sunao into his moneymaking schemes, known as the group "The School Do-It-Alls" and from such minor characters as a bishōnen ghost and three younger boys who resemble the trio. No parents are ever mentioned, and the only authority figures are school nurse Kai Nanami and math teacher Shin'ichirou Minato, but it is known that Sora and Sunao are both orphans. Both have some connection with Sora and Sunao's dark past, which also involves one of the older students at the school, Kai Nagase, and a mysterious doctor named Aizawa. 

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The film is set in the small, fictional American town of Dancer (Brewster County, Texas). Only 81 people live in this town. Following their high school graduation, four young men wrestle with their decisions to leave for Los Angeles. 

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The Duke of Chartres is in love with Princess Henriette, but she seemingly wants nothing to do with him. Eventually he grows tired of her insults and flees to England when Louis XV insists that the two marry. He goes undercover as Monsieur Beaucaire, the barber of the French Ambassador, and finds that he enjoys the freedom of a commoner’s life. After catching the Duke of Winterset cheating at cards, he forces him to introduce him as a nobleman to Lady Mary, with whom he has become infatuated. When Lady Mary is led to believe that the Duke of Chartres is merely a barber she loses interest in him. She eventually learns that he is a nobleman after all and tries to win him back, but the Duke of Chartres opts to return to France and Princess Henriette who now returns his affection. 

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A French edition of Amis et Amiles. Illustration by František Bílek. Amis has married Lubias and become count of Blaives (Blaye), while Amiles has become seneschal at the court of Charlemagne, and is seduced by the emperor's daughter, Bellisant. The lovers are betrayed, and Amiles is unable to find the necessary supporters to enable him to clear himself by the ordeal of single combat, and fears, moreover, to fight in a false cause. He is granted a reprieve, and goes in search of Amis, who engages to personate him in the combat. He thus saves his friend, but in so doing perjures himself. Then follows the leprosy of Amis, and, after a lapse of years, his discovery of Amiles and cure. There are obvious reminiscences in this story of Damon and Pythias, and of the classical instances of sacrifice at the divine command. The legend of Amis and Amiles occurs in many forms with slight variations, the names and positions of the friends being sometimes reversed. The crown of martyrdom was not lacking, for Amis and Amiles were slain by Ogier the Dane at Novara on their way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jourdain de Blaives, a chanson de geste which partly reproduces the story of Apollonius of Tyre, was attached to the geste of Amis by making Jourdain his grandson. 

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In a small New England town during the frigid winter season of 1979, four elderly friends—businessman Ricky Hawthorne, lawyer Sears James, Dr. John Jaffrey, and Mayor Edward Charles Wanderley—form the Chowder Society, an informal men's club who get together each week to share tales of horror. Edward's son David, living in New York City, falls from his apartment window after seeing a girl he's been sleeping with suddenly turn into a living corpse. His other son, Don, comes home at Edward's request. Some time after David's funeral, Edward sees him walking through town during a snowstorm and follows him to a bridge, where he disappears. Calling out to his dead son, he suddenly sees a female apparition and he falls to his death from the bridge. Meanwhile, two escaped patients from a mental asylum, Gregory and Fenny Bate, have taken up residence in the old Eva Galli house, now in ruins. Doubting his father committed suicide, Don approaches the remaining three friends and tells them a "ghost" story to gain membership into the Chowder Society. In a flashback, Don tells the story of how he, a college professor in Florida, began a torrid sexual affair with a mysterious secretary named Alma. The two of them immediately hit it off and before long they were engaged. Alma insisted she wanted to marry Don in his home town of Milburn, but he was reluctant, as he considered the town boring. Don soon begins to suspect that something was terribly wrong with Alma, a gut feeling that was vindicated one night when he touched her and realized she was as cold as a corpse. Don eventually broke things off with Alma, and Alma, furious, disappeared from his life. He falls into a depression, which ends up costing him both his reputation and his job. A month later, he called his brother in New York and learned to his horror that Alma had begun dating David not long after he broke off their engagement, and that now he's going to marry her. Don desperately tries to warn his brother to keep away from Alma, declaring her dangerous. However, his brother scoffs at the warning and hangs up. Not long after, David is killed and Don suspected her of being involved in his death. The elderly friends react to Don's story. Sears remains very skeptical. Don then shows the three elders an old photograph from the 1920s he'd found among his father's possessions. In it there is a striking young woman who is a dead ringer for Alma. Jaffrey, realizing what has happened, pleads with his friends to tell the truth, but is rebuffed. The next day, Jaffrey has a nightmare about Alma and dies of a heart attack. Finally, Sears and Ricky explain to Don that, in the spring of 1929, the four friends became smitten with a young flirtatious girl of mysterious origins named Eva Galli. Edward first took her to bed, but he was impotent with her. Outside her house, the other three friends serenade Eva in hopes of catching a glimpse of her when a shirtless Edward comes to the window instead, giving the impression that he's slept with her. Edward leaves with his friends, and the four become very drunk, discussing Eva's prowess in the bedroom. They return to her house, where all but Sears dances with her. When it is proposed that they leave, Sears suggestively insists on getting his dance, to which she pointedly responds that she intends to dance with all of them. She confronts Edward about what he had told his friends, then begins to tell them the truth when young Edward leaps to silence her, knocking her down, accidentally smashing her head into the stone fireplace. Horrified, the young men believe that the unresponsive Eva is dead. They consider calling the police, but realize it would only mean wrecking their lives. Instead, they load her body into her car, then push it into the nearby lake. As the car descends, Eva stirs inside, looking out at them from the back window, screaming and hammering at the glass as the car sinks beneath the surface, taking her with it. Back in the present, Ricky and Sears reveal that the Chowder Society never talked about it again, not even with each other. Due to Eva's reputation, the townsfolk were relieved when she'd gone missing and assumed that she'd simply skipped town. However, they admit that her death has haunted them all these years. Whereas Sears is dubious, both Ricky and Don believe that Alma and Eva are the same woman and that her ghost has returned to seek revenge. Don suggests they go to Eva's old house, now in ruins, to confront the past and her ghost once and for all. They go there, but Don falls on the rotting stairs and breaks his leg. Sears leaves in his car to seek help, leaving Don and Ricky behind. While driving through the snowstorm, Sears comes upon Eva's apparition. He slams on the brakes, and swerves to the side of the road. He survives, but is attacked and killed by Fenny Bate, one of Eva's accomplices. Ricky believes something's happened to Sears and leaves to get help. He's picked up by Gregory Bate, who tells him of Eva's plans for them both, but Ricky stabs him and escapes to get to the authorities, telling them to pull Eva's car up from the lake to reveal her body inside. This is intercut with Don, who confronts the rotting specter of Alma/Eva. Ricky and the authorities drag out the ancient car and wrench open the rusted, corroded door. The rotting corpse of Eva lunges into view and falls harmlessly to the ground. Now that the truth about Eva is known, Don is spared from her vengeance, and the town is restored to peace. 

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Rocky Balboa, now in his early sixties, has been facing some changing times in his life over the passing years. He now runs a small but successful Italian restaurant named after his wife Adrian, who died from ovarian cancer four years prior. He also battles personal demons from his grief over Adrian's death, and his eroding relationship with his son Robert, now a struggling corporate employee. Paulie, Rocky's best friend and brother-in-law, continues to support him whenever he can, but is constantly guilt-ridden over his past poor treatment towards his late sister and accuses Rocky of living in the past. Late one night, Rocky meets a woman named Marie, who was once a troublesome young girl Rocky had escorted home thirty years ago. Marie is now a single parent of a teenage son born out of wedlock named Stephenson, nicknamed "Steps". Rocky's friendship with Marie quickly blossoms over the following weeks and he meets and bonds with Steps, providing him a much-needed buffer for his anguish. Meanwhile, on the professional boxing circuit, Mason "The Line" Dixon reigns as the undefeated yet unpopular heavyweight world champion, often ridiculed for having never fought a true contender. This leads to tension with the public and his promoters, and encourages him to return to his roots: the small gym he first trained in, as well as his old trainer who sagely tells him that, inevitably, he will earn back his respect through a true opponent that will test him. ESPN later broadcasts a computer simulation of a fight between Rocky (in his prime) and Mason—likened to a modern-day version of The Super Fight—that ends in a disputed KO victory for Balboa, further riling the champ. In contrast, the simulation inspires Rocky to take up boxing again; an intention that goes public when he successfully renews his boxing license. Dixon's promoters thus pitch the idea of holding a charity exhibition bout at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas to bolster Dixon's floundering popularity. With some hesitation, both men agree to the match, creating a media buzz that stabs at Rocky's age and Dixon's credibility. Robert later makes an effort to discourage Rocky from fighting, blaming his own personal failings on his father's celebrity shadow, but Rocky rebukes him with some profound, inspiring advice about how blaming others won't help him succeed in life. The next day, father and son meet over Adrian's grave and reconcile. Robert has quit his job to be at Rocky's side. Rocky sets straight to training with Apollo Creed's (and later his) old trainer, Duke, who quickly surmises that the slow and arthritic Rocky can only compete by building his strength and punching power as much as possible. The bout itself is a back and forth affair, with Dixon easily dominating the first round, only to injure his left hand in the second one on Rocky's hip. Rocky then makes a dramatic comeback, knocking Mason down, and surprising the audience with his prowess and chin despite his age. The two combatants beat each other severely throughout the full ten rounds, ending with both men still standing, although Rocky gets the last punch. Rocky thanks an appreciative Dixon for the match and tells him that he is a great champion, while the audience applauds the two fighters. The result is announced as Rocky exits the ring with his family and friends: a win for Dixon by a close split decision, but Rocky clearly doesn't mind the outcome and the crowd gives him a final standing ovation to chants of “Rocky”. In the closing shot, Rocky returns home and visits Adrian's grave again, thanking her for helping him; "Yo, Adrian, we did it. We did it." As the credits roll, an inset features people running up the Rocky Steps in celebration of personal accomplishments. 

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Part 1 starts with roses being dropped on the track to commemorate those lost then shifts to the aftermath of the wreck where first responders are arriving at the scene. Five months later, the coroner, Tom Weir, brings in Boris Osman, an engineer to help him investigate the crash and Weir begins to be pressured by the state- owned rail company to conclude his report quickly. After failing to access the damaged train, Osman thinks it’s because the investigation will have to disclose why the tracks that caused the wreck, and the train itself, were in such bad shape. Osman thinks it was caused by the politicians in office allowing the rail system to deteriorate, and his investigations reveal that the overweight bridge was recently hit twice before. Osman also learns this is the third time this locomotive went off the rails. Pressure begins to be brought on the coroner from above to stop asking to look at the train, but he decides to use his authority to force the rail company to let Osman examine the locomotive. The inquest begins, with Orman recounting how the tragedy happened early on 18 January, alternating with flashbacks of the stories of some passengers who traveled on the ill-fated train, leading up to the depiction of the accident. The train was 3-minutes late at Paramatta and was riding faster than normal to make up time. Due to worn out track and worn out wheels on the locomotive, it jumps the rails and hits the struts of a bridge, causing it to subsequently collapse on the train. The community springs into action to aid the survivors, although the worst is also shown as looters steal from rescue vehicles too. Several of the rescuers testify at the inquest and recount their actions on the day of the accident. In part 2, the inquest, flashbacks, and use of archive news coverage continue. Many rescuers risk their own lives to save the injured. Even when ordered to leave due to the danger of further collapse, many refuse to abandon survivors, and many are traumatized by what they saw. In all, they find 83 dead. Soon Ormond comes under attack for saying that it was the condition of the locomotive’s wheels that contributed to the accident, since while $200 million has been allocated to repair the network's tracks, there is no money to also repair the locomotives. The families of the dead try to cope, while Gerry Buchtman, who went to Granville while on sick leave from his emergency responder job has to fight to keep his job, since the powers that be want to fire him for doing just that. In spite of pressure, the coroner finds that the locomotive’s condition contributed to the accident. Osman later learns that even though the rail company knew this type of locomotive was dangerous due to a derailment 11 months before Granville, they took no steps to lower the speed on this line because it came from an electoral district that often decided national elections and the government did not want to anger the voters by making their train late. We return to the memorial service, while on screen captions tell us what happened to some of the people involved in the crash and the investigation. 

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Threshold is a space opera novel, involving interstellar intrigue, mysteriously alluring space aliens, and a hero who is larger than life. Its protagonist, the penultimate issue of millennia long alien breeding program: Peter Cory, billionaire, hard driving adventurer, and unrequited rescuer of damsels. (Due to a "clerical" error in the program, his future wife was born late and is now only a child, but there is no time to wait.) One of the aliens, a "wWyh'j" (witch) named Megonthalyä (Meg) and her obese feline familiar (Memphus) come to Earth to enlist Peter's help. 

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Jack (Carbonell) is a former womanizer and fashion photographer who is put in charge of his sister's 17-year-old-son when she leaves to find herself. During her leave, he attempts to revive his career while re-establishing a relationship with his nephew and son. In the midst of all this, Eli (Ritter), his sister's ex-husband moves in after he loses his job. 

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The series opens with the introduction of a group of white- haired children, known as the "Befort Children", named after "Befort" a fictional village in Belgium where their existence was first recorded in 1489. This group of enigmatic children has been spotted at different times and places in Europe for over 500 years. Always with the appearance of 11-year- olds, they behave far more mature than they should be, never grow old, and seem to have supernatural power. Then the story starts to unfold in 2012 by introducing Helga, an introverted 11-year-old orphan who drew pictures of a land with a crescent moon that she believed was her home. Her playmate and only friend in the orphanage, Chitto, wants to help Helga find it. So together they escape from the orphanage and set out on a journey in which they meet Tohma, an energetic boy in his home, Papin Island. There Tohma tries to befriend them but misunderstands Helga and becomes hostile to her. Later he is mesmerized by Helga's bravery in rescuing Chitto from a group of poisonous insects. Tohma, through his desire to help the two runaway orphans, ventures out on a quest that will eventually cross paths with the mission of the Befort Children, who have spent centuries wandering Europe in search of a person named Tina. As they go further they come to realize a truth far more great and entwined with many other mysterious characters. 

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Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie), a successful reporter for a Seattle television station, interviews a self-proclaimed prophet, Jack (Tony Shalhoub), to find out if he really can predict football scores. Instead, Prophet Jack not only predicts the football score, and that it will hail the next day, but also that Lanie will die in seven days, on the following Thursday. When his first two prophecies come true, Lanie panics and again meets with Jack to ask for another prophecy to test him again. Jack tells her that there will be a relatively significant earthquake in San Francisco at 9:06 am, which also happens. Now Lanie is convinced that she is going to die and is forced to reevaluate her life. Lanie tries to find consolation in her famous baseball player boyfriend Cal Cooper (Christian Kane) and in her family, but there is little there. Her lifelong ambition of appearing on network television begins to look like a distant dream. In her desperation, she commits professional blunders but ends up finding support in an unlikely source: her archenemy, the cameraman Pete Scanlon (Edward Burns), with whom she once had casual sex. He introduces her to a new approach to life: to live every moment of her life to the fullest and to do whatever she had always wanted to do. Lanie moves in with Pete for a day, and he introduces her to his son Tommy (Jesse James Rutherford), who lives with his mother. They spend a whole day together with Tommy. That night Lanie and Pete sleep together for the second time. The next day Lanie receives an opportunity for a job she always dreamed of in New York. She asks Pete to come with her, but he declines, telling her that her appetite for success and fame will never end. Sadly, Lanie leaves for New York. Pete meets Jack and tells him how wrong he is, as Lanie got the job which Jack foretold she would not get. However, Jack explains that he was right, as Lanie will never be able to get the job because she'll die before it begins. He also gives a prophecy of the death of a famous former baseball player in a plane crash. When Pete receives the news of the death of the baseball player, as foretold by Jack, he tries to call Lanie to warn her. He can't reach her, so he flies to New York. Lanie - unconcerned with Jack's prophecy - interviews her idol, famous media personality Deborah Connors (Stockard Channing). Lanie realizes how petty the opening questions are and shares a heartfelt moment with Deborah live on air. The interview receives huge ratings. The network immediately offers her a position, but Lanie declines, realizing that she wants a life with Pete in Seattle. As she leaves the studio, a police officer gets into a conflict with a man, who shoots a bullet into the air. Pete tries to warn Lanie from across the street, but she is shot in the crossfire. Lanie dies in the operating theatre but is revived. When she wakes up, Pete tells her that he has loved her since the first time he saw her, and Lanie tells him that she loves him too. Later, Pete, Lanie, and Tommy watch Cal's baseball game, while Lanie (in a voiceover) says that one part of her has died — the part that didn't know how to live a life. 

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Harry Barber is serving time in prison after being framed in a corruption scandal. Before his arrest, he was a reporter for a Florida newspaper that uncovered widespread corruption in the local government. After rejecting a bribe that would have ensured his silence, Harry finds the funds deposited into his bank account and he is promptly arrested. Now, two years later, he is released when an ex-cop's testimony vindicates him. Though he is bitter against the town officials, Harry wanders back to Palmetto with his girlfriend Nina, who has been patiently waiting for him. Unable to find a job, he spends his days lounging in a local bar. In walks Rhea Malroux, the very attractive femme, wife of the richest man in town, who offers him a job: help her and her daughter Odette scam the old man out of $500,000 with a bogus kidnapping scheme, in which Harry would receive a ten percent cut. Tempted by both Rhea's seductive charms and the prospect of some quick cash, Harry goes along with the plan. First, he goes over to the Malroux mansion to check that his facts are in order, about who Rhea actually is. Then he agrees to meet with Rhea in private to iron out the details. And lastly, he asks to take a meeting with Odette, to make sure she is actually in on the plan. After all of these things seem to check out, Harry agrees. When Odette goes missing, (the plan is that she will stay out of town for a few days, until her father pays the money,) the story gets leaked to the police. The police then come to Harry, looking to offer him a job. His brother in law is a top detective, and knowing that Harry used to write for the paper, he believes Harry would be good at keeping the press informed, but also keeping them off the backs of the detectives who are working the case. So now Harry is part of the kidnapping, but he's also part of the police investigative team. When Harry shows up to his bungalow to find Odette dead one day, he realizes he's in a lot of trouble. He uses a tape recording he made, when ironing out the terms of the deal with Rhea Malroux to blackmail her. And so she sends her boyfriend to dispose of Odette's body. But then the real Odette turns up in Harry's bungalow, also dead, and things get even worse. This time, the police find out about it. That leads to Harry working with the police to catch Rhea Malroux and her boyfriend. Harry goes to see Rhea's husband and tell him everything. He learns that the woman pretending to be Rhea is not this man's actual wife. Instead, she is the gardener. She and her boyfriend, Donnelley take Harry from the Malroux home to a garage, where they are also holding Nina. They plan to kill both of them by dipping them in a barrel of acid, but Harry is wearing a wire and the police arrive. Donnelley falls into the barrel of acid and the woman pretending to be Rhea Malroux is arrested. 

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Moshe and Mali Bellanga are an impoverished, childless, Hasidic baalei teshuva ("returnees to Judaism") couple in the Breslov community in Jerusalem. After Moshe is passed over for a stipend he expected, they cannot pay their bills, much less prepare for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Moshe admires a particularly beautiful etrog, or citron, one of the four species required for the holiday observance. They console themselves by recalling a saying of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov that difficult times are a test of faith. After some anguished prayer, they receive an unexpected monetary gift on the eve of the holidayUshpizin Synopsis – Plot Summary. Fandango.com (19 October 2005). and Moshe buys the etrog for 1000 shekels (approx. $300), a large sum of money that is much more than he can afford. The couple is visited by a pair of escaped convicts, one of whom knew Moshe in his earlier, non- religious life. The convicts become their guests (ushpizin) in the sukkah, creating many conflicts and straining Moshe and Mali's relationship. 

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Ned Marriner is in France with his father, Edward, a celebrated photographer who is working on a book about Provence. While his father shoots outside the deserted Saint- Sauveur Cathedral, Ned wanders in to look around. There he meets Kate Wenger, an American exchange student with a passion for ancient history and an extensive knowledge of the cathedral's past. The pair is startled by the appearance of a then-nameless man, who warns them to leave immediately, stating that they "have blundered into the corner of a very old story." Ned finds that he is able to sense the man's presence, a power of which he was previously unaware. Ned and Kate also notice an ancient carving of a woman on one of the church pillars, which the nameless man claims he created. Frightened by the incident, Ned and Kate make plans to meet a few days later. Ned goes on a photo-scouting mission with his father's assistants, Greg, Steve, and Melanie, a young woman who is hyper-organized, witty, and well liked by everyone, including Ned. They head towards Mont Sainte-Victoire, a much-photographed location made famous by Paul Cézanne. But along the way, Ned falls suddenly and inexplicably ill. Arriving at the mountain, he is overcome by images of the slaughter that took place there centuries prior, when a Roman general killed thousands of Celts. He is rushed back to the team's villa, but once he has travelled only a short distance from the mountain, he recovers completely. Ned and Kate meet later that day in a coffee shop to discuss their situation. Ned is unnerved by the discovery of his strange abilities, while both are curious to find out more about the nameless man and his "story." Unaware that they are being watched by the nameless man, they make plans to meet again in Entremont, an ancient Celtic site, on the Eve of Beltaine. Kate leaves, but Ned becomes aware of the nameless man's presence and confronts him. The man tells him little, and soon leaves the cafe. Outside, however, he is attacked by unnaturally vicious dogs, and Ned steps in to defend him, saving his life. Ned meets his Aunt Kim, a woman with mysterious powers. She tells him that she sensed he was in trouble, and came at once to offer her help. He discovers that she has the same ability to "sense" the presence of those with power, which she claims "runs in the family." They are confronted by a second nameless man, a large Celt with antlers, and are again warned to stay out of the "story." The Celt plans to kill the nameless man from the cathedral (who he calls a "Roman"), and threatens Ned for having helped him, but Aunt Kim manages to bluff their way out of the situation. Despite Ned's misgivings, Kate, who is acting strangely, convinces him to follow their original plan of visiting Entremont on Beltaine. They plan to be away from the place before dark, but not long after they enter the site, darkness falls several hours early. They hide from a ghostly procession of druids that arrives soon after and becomes more solid as the light continues to fade. The nameless Roman from the cathedral confronts them, ordering them to flee as soon as they can. Kate begins to struggle, possessed with a strange desire to join the druidic ceremony below. Just before she escapes, however, Melanie arrives, looking for Ned. As she approaches the waiting Celts, she is transformed into Ysabel, possessed by the spirit of an ancient woman who the two nameless men have been fighting over for centuries. Ysabel names the Roman Phelan and the Celt Cadell, and orders them to spend three days searching for her. Whoever finds her first will win her. Ned and Kate discover that this is the "story": a battle between two men for one woman's love, which has been repeated in various incarnations throughout the millennia. Ned and Kate leave unnoticed, stricken by the loss of Melanie. He tells his father, Aunt Kim, Greg, and Steve everything that has happened, and also asks his mother, Meghan, to leave Sudan, where she is working with Doctors Without Borders, to be with them as they attempt to get Melanie back. Meghan and Kim, her sister, had a falling out when they were younger, and there are some strained moments once Meghan arrives and they attempt to work together and reconcile their differences. They are aided by Uncle Dave, Kim's husband, who also possesses special abilities and knowledge of the supernatural. Ned and his fellow searchers visit various historical sites in Provence over the following two days, trying to track down Ysabel's hiding place before Phelan or Cadell in the hopes that they will be able to rescue Melanie. Following a hint from one of the wild boars that are common throughout the South of France, Ned realizes that Ysabel is hiding on Mont Sainte-Victoire, the site where he experienced his mysterious illness. He decides to go there alone, as he is a marathon runner and will be able to reach the summit fastest. Despite feeling sick the entire way, Ned makes it to the summit before Phelan or Cadell, discovering Ysabel in a cavern that looks out over Provence. He demands that she release Melanie. Cadell and Phelan arrive shortly thereafter, both claiming the victory. Ysabel points out that it was Ned who arrived first, and reveals that Ned is distantly descended from the original Ysabel (who would have gone by a different name). Both Phelan and Cadell commit suicide by leaping from the mountain, for neither succeeded in reaching Ysabel first. When Ned looks at Ysabel again, he finds that she too has departed, leaving Melanie safe and unharmed in her place. 

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Having just been discharged from the military, Mak-dong is on the train home. As he leans out the train platform, Mi-ae, a beautiful woman in the car ahead of him, is also leaning out. Her pink scarf escapes from her and poignantly lands on Mak-dong's face, blinding him. As he goes back into the train car to return the scarf, he becomes embroiled in a fight with a group of thugs who are harassing Mi-ae. From the beginning, Mak-dong is entangled in a relationship that becomes his undoing. Home, Ilsan, is not the same for Mak-dong anymore. The fields, acacias and rice paddies have gone, replaced by high rise apartments. He discovers his mother is working as a house maid, and all of his siblings except his mentally disabled brother—who is literally the eldest brother and called "big brother," have left home, struggling to make a living. His sister is working as a hostess, his younger brother is working as an egg delivery man, and his older brother is a detective who is also a violent drunk. Mak- dong's dream, which he expresses to his brother, is for the whole family to live together again, running a family business, and living in harmony. His brother replies then how would any of them make a living? While looking for work in an alienated neighborhood of Seoul, Youngdeungpo, Mak-dong again sees Mi-ae, the owner of the pink scarf, and follows her into a nightclub where she is a singer. She is also the girlfriend of a gang boss Bae Tae-gon, and when Mak-dong tries to defend her from his thugs when they force her into a car, he ends up getting beat up again. Later, at Mi-ae's urging, the boss gives him a reference for a job at a parking lot. Mak-dong is given the opportunity to make a lot of money by inciting a fight with a council man who is obstructing Bae Tae-gon's building permit. In order to do this convincingly, Mak-dong breaks his fingers by slamming a door on them. Seeing him complete his task with such dedication, Bae Tae-gon elevates him by allowing him to call him "hyung," or "Big Brother," and admitting him as a full-fledged member of the gang. This causes some of the underlings to become disgruntled, as it would normally take at least a year to reach this status. Now a member of 'the family', Mak-dong and Mi-ae find in each other a kindred spirit, the feeling between them not clearly defined, yet finding themselves drawn to each other through their common feeling of hopelessness. In an important scene on the train, Mi-ae and Mak-dong talk and he gives her a photo of the large, green tree in front of his home in Ilsan. Mi-ae is struck by Mak-dong's naivete and purity. It is revealed Mak-dong is a virgin. Her beeper goes off, and it is Bae Tae-gun telling her to return home immediately. She tells Mak-dong she will do whatever he says, and with a traditional Korean loyalty, he responds that if big brother has asked them to return they should. Mi-ae laughs bitterly at his old fashioned simplicity. After a night when Bae Tae-gon sends her up to the hotel room of a prosecutor as a sexual "favor", she insults the gang boss. Mak-dong witnesses Bae Tae-gon slapping her, then drives her home. She offers herself to Mak-ong even though she is "dirty." Suddenly, Bae Tae- gon's own former gang boss Kim Yang-kil arrives from years behind bars to take for himself the little empire Bae Tae-gon has spent his life building. In several encounters with Kim Yang-kil, Bae Tae-gon is humiliated in front of his own gang. Bae Tae-gon takes Mak-dong up to the deserted building where he wants to build his future empire, and asks him what his dream is. Bae replies he also got as far as he did because of one of those dreams. Mak-dong makes a final expression of his loyalty by stabbing Kim Yang-kil to death in a men's bathroom. As blood flows everywhere, Mak-dong becomes hysterical. Immediately after, Mak-dong calls home in the famous "phone booth" scene. He asks his mentally challenged "big brother" if he remembers how they used to fish in the river, and how one day he lost a whole day of fishing because he tried to catch one of the green fish and lost his slipper in the river. Immediately after, Bae Tae-gon takes Mak-dong to the deserted building, and being consistent with the ruthless nature that has got him so far in life, fatally shoots him, leaving him for dead. Mak-dong staggers out and sprawls across the windshield of Bae's car, staring straight into the camera and dying as Mi-ae screams in horror. Some time later, Bae Tae-gon and Mi-ae have moved to the Ilsan New Town that typifies the new middle class suburbs that have sprung up around Seoul's satellite cities. One day they come upon an old-style restaurant in an old-style house run by a family. Mi-ae appears to be pregnant. The couple order chicken soup, and a chicken is slaughtered in front of them, recalling the sacrifice Mak-dong made for his dream to come true. Outside, Mi-ae recognizes with tears the tree in the photo she has kept all this time and realizes it is Mak-dong's family home. 

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Taking place in Quebec City, the film tells the story of a lawyer and a patron of the arts, Albert Frédéric, who, earlier in life, caused a murder and made it look like an accident for financial gain. Later in life, a dying woman tells a reporter the tale of how she thinks the accident was actually murder. The young American reporter, Mary Roberts, begins investigating the case, unaware that the charming lawyer may be behind it all. Meanwhile, Michel Lacoste, a classical composer, who is supported by Frédéric, is having marriage troubles. Finally his wife kills herself and leaves the husband a note. Frédéric sneaks into the apartment, takes the note and convinces the man that he killed her in a drunken rage. Michel, whose night was indeed blacked out by drink, can't remember anything. The lawyer then offers the composer a deal: kill reporter Mary Roberts in exchange for legal representation that will guarantee to get the younger man off the hook. The man, seeing no other choice, agrees reluctantly. The man and woman meet but he does not have the heart to kill her. The two begin to fall in love, gradually figure out that the lawyer is the real killer and set about a scheme to drive the lawyer into confessing to the crime. 

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Wetworks is a covert operations team in the Wildstorm Universe, designated Team 7, led by Colonel Jackson Dane, who was a member of the original Team 7. In issue #1 of the series, Team 7 was sent on a (suicide) mission by International Operations' (I/O) Director Miles Craven. The mission was to enter a terrorist enclave on the Raanes Peninsula (Eastern Europe) and extract a biological agent the terrorists had in their possession. Once the team reached the target, they found out that someone had raided the enclave before them. While investigating, the team found several big transparent tubes containing some kind of golden fluid. At that moment, the explosives they were carrying were activated by remote control, displaying a ten-minute countdown. That was when the team knew they were double crossed. A hidden sniper shot at one of the tubes when team member Clayton "Claymore" Maure was examining it. The tube broke and the golden fluid jumped on Claymore as if it were alive, covering his whole body. If that was not enough, they were attacked by some terrorists. The terrorists started shooting, but the bullets bounced off Claymore's gold-covered body. Time was ticking and Col. Dane decided the team should open the remaining tubes to use the golden symbiotes as protection against the detonation of the explosives Wetworks original team of (vol. 1) After the detonation, the enclave was destroyed, but Team 7 emerged from the fire unharmed. That was when I/O's cleaners (three aircraft) were ordered to enter the site to kill the surviving team members. The field leader of the cleaners, Mother One, double crossed I/O and shot down two aircraft before destroying her own. Mother One also had a golden symbiote, although it was not shown how she acquired it. Mother One explained to Team 7 they were double crossed by Craven and I/O and asked them to accompany her to her boss, industrialist Armand Waering. Col. Dane reluctantly accepted and they started to work for Armand Waering. Waering told them that he wanted to kill the Vampire Nation because they wanted to take over the world from the humans. What he did not tell the team was that he was actually the Jaquar, leader of the Werenation. Two members of Wetworks died early in their battles with the undead – Flattop and Crossbones. Later Pilgrim's brother, Nathaniel Blackbird joined the squad, and they learned that both he and Pilgrim (unknown to her) were both werewolves. Several members of the squad died during a major mission some time later, including Dozer and Claymore, and Wetworks broke up. Recently Dane has reactivated the team to deal with breaks in reality caused by another superteam, which have been turned into portals for forces from another dimension. 

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A year has passed, and Meggie now lives with Elinor, Darius and her parents, Mo and Resa. Life is peaceful, but not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart and the characters that came to life. For the fire-eater Dustfinger, the need to return to his home world has become urgent. When he finds a crooked storyteller named Orpheus who has the ability to read and write stories to life like Mo, he asks to be read back. Orpheus obliges but doesn't send Dustfinger's apprentice, Farid, back into the book as they arranged. Instead, Orpheus steals the book from the boy and hands it over to Basta, who wants revenge for the death of his master Capricorn. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long, both are caught inside the book, too. Soon after Meggie and Farid are in the book, Mortola, Basta, Orpheus, and a "man built like a wardrobe" barge into Elinor's house, taking Mo, Resa, Elinor, and Darius prisoner. As per Mortola's orders, Orpheus reads Basta, Mortola, and Mo into Inkheart, bringing Resa along by accident. Upon entry, Mortola shoots Mo with a shotgun that he brought from our world. Resa discovers that her voice has come back to her as she prays for Mo to survive the wound. As he recovers, Resa and Mo hide in a secret cave with the strolling players, or the Motley Folk. Soon the Motley Folk assume that the injured Mo is the mysterious gentleman-robber, the "Bluejay", a fictitious hero from a song created by Fenoglio's words. Fenoglio has been living within his own story since the events of Inkheart, working as a court scribe in Lombrica's capital city of Ombra. Once reunited with Meggie, Fenoglio asks her to read Cosimo the Fair back into the story, since he died a death the author never planned for him. Meggie doesn't feel comfortable interfering with the story but is soon convinced by Fenoglio that it will be 'a double' of Cosimo - not Cosimo himself. Reluctantly, Meggie reads Cosmio in and quickly regrets it when the Adderhead's soldiers barge into the fair, injuring and killing many people. Cosimo has none of his doubles memories and doesn't seem to love his wife and child anymore. Cosimo's return upsets the Adderhead, ruler of the neighboring region of Argenta, who planned to take over Lombrica once the Laughing Prince died. With the rightful heir to the throne of Ombra mysteriously brought back to life, but with no memories of 'his own' life, war is imminent. Mo and Resa are captured by the Adderhead's men along with many other strolling players in the cave, sold out by one of their own. Meggie joins Dustfinger and Farid in searching for her parents and the strolling players. Along with the Black Prince, the leader of the Motley Folk, they launch a successful rescue mission, but Mo is unable to escape because of his wound and Resa stays behind with him. In the meantime, Cosimo's double is ruthlessly killed in a battle along with most of Ombra's men. Meggie goes willingly into the Adderhead's Castle of Night and, fulfilling a prophecy she and Fenoglio dreamed up and "read" into reality, offers him a bargain: Mo, a great bookbinder, rather than the robber they believe him to be, will bind the Adderhead a book of immortality if he lets Meggie, Resa, Mo, and the rest go free. What they neglect to tell the Prince of Argenta is that if three words are written in the book ("Heart", "Spell", and "Death", referencing the titles of the books), the person who signed his name in the book to gain immortality will die instantly. In disbelief, his lieutenant Firefox, is chosen to test it. Firefox is made immortal, surviving a fatal stabbing without suffering any consequences but Taddeo, the Adderhead's librarian, kills him by writing the three words in the book. Satisfied that the book works, the words are erased and replaced by the Adderhead's name, consequently making the Adderhead invincible. Mo picks up Firefox's sword as they leave and claims it as his own, feeling a strange coldness within him; he believes his anger and sadness at the events thus far are changing him into a different person. The Adderhead decided, as celebration for his wife giving birth to a healthy son to release all of the prisoners from his cells, but the Black Prince suspects that he instead plans to sell the prisoners into slavery. Together the robbers plan to free the prisoners. Mo learns to fight during the raid lead by Basta. Unfortunately Basta kills Farid with a knife thrown at his back (The death Fenoglio had originally planned for Dustfinger). Basta is then killed by Mo. Later while mourning Farid's death, Dustfinger asks Meggie if she too would like to have Farid back. When Meggie agrees, he sends her to Roxanne to tell her "he will always find his way back to her". Roxanne realizes what Dustfinger plans to do and runs to him but is too late and watches as the White Women, (the Inkworld's Angels of Death) take Dustfinger. Farid is brought back to life in Dustfinger's place and the story ends with Meggie reading Orpheus to the Inkworld so as to resurrect Dustfinger. Orpheus convinces Farid to become his servant in saying that it will help him bring Dustfinger back to life. 

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The story opens in Lapland at the funeral pyre of Jerry Cornelius's father, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who has developed the "Final Programme"—a design for a perfect, self-replicating human being. Jerry Cornelius, playboy physicist and dashing secret agent, is in attendance. Afterwards he is questioned by Dr. Smiles, who wants to retrieve a microfilm which he knows is in the Cornelius family home in England. Cornelius, a conspicuous counter-culture dandy with addictions to chocolate biscuits and alcohol, threatens to blow up the family house. Flashbacks to Jerry's conversations with Professor Hira about the Kali Yuga inform the narrative, providing a philosophical background of the world in its final days. In various scenes we learn that the Vatican no longer exists and that Amsterdam has been razed to ash, and we see Trafalgar Square in a post-apocalyptic scenario of wrecked cars piled atop one another. Back in the UK, a group of scientists led by Dr. Smiles and the formidable Miss Brunner (who consumes her lovers) try to persuade Cornelius to locate the microfilm containing his father's Final Programme. Jerry learns from his family servant that his sister Catherine has been imprisoned by his evil, drug-addicted brother, Frank; Frank has Catherine held captive in their family home, and has addicted her to drugs for unspecified reasons. Jerry, whose relationship with Catherine is implied to be incestuous, instructs his servant John to smuggle Catherine to the lodge on the property's grounds; he will "take care of Frank". He consults Major Wrongway Lindbergh, who supplies him with a high-powered jet aircraft, and his old friend "Shades" who can supply him with napalm. The attack on the old house commences. The house is protected by a sound system that induces pseudo- epilepsy, but Jerry and the others get inside unharmed. They fight their way past many traps, including poison gas and a lethal chessboard. Jerry finds John fatally wounded by Frank. John confesses before dying that Catherine has not been freed and that Frank has returned her to the bedroom. Jerry finds and confronts Frank, and a needlegun fight ensues. In the confusion, Catherine is accidentally killed by Jerry. Jerry is wounded, and Frank falls into the hands of Miss Brunner. She forces him to open the vaults, but he outsmarts her and escapes with the microfilm. After Jerry recuperates from the poison of Frank's needles, he meets with Miss Brunner. She introduces him to her new lover, Jenny. They plot to recapture Frank. Jenny is induced to play piano naked in Jerry's flat, where she is consumed by Miss Brunner. Frank has set up a meeting to sell the microfilm to Dr. Baxter (Patrick Magee); Jerry and Miss Brunner track them down. Miss Brunner consumes Baxter. Another fight with Frank ensues, and Frank is killed. Miss Brunner and Jerry return to Lapland by hot-air balloon with the recovered microfilm. The scientists put the Final Programme into operation: the process requires that Miss Brunner be combined with another person to form a hermaphroditic being. Brunner chooses Jerry over the scientists' intended subject, Dmitri, and she traps Dmitri in a lethal steambath. Dmitri escapes Brunner's trap and fights Jerry, who is severely wounded. Brunner intervenes at the last moment, shooting Dmitri but not killing him. The scientists, working against time, scramble to re-calibrate their experiment for Jerry, who is placed inside a large chamber with Brunner. As the process reaches its climax, the two subjects are bathed by solar radiation and blur into each other. A single being emerges from the chamber. The scientists and Dmitri confront the creature. Unseen at first, the being speaks with Jerry's voice. The creature does not know if it is a Messiah, but is sure that its creation means the end of an age. When seen from the onlookers' perspective, the being is Jerry Cornelius, his body now altered to appear as a hunched, pre-modern hominid. The creature leaves Brunner's hidden base, and observes that it is "a very tasty world". 

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The affable Nandu (Sanjay Dutt) is a small-time crook who is hired to deliver a mysterious package to a notorious criminal named Pinky (Paresh Rawal). Feeling that he's being cheated out of his delivery fee, Nandu holds out for more money, and soon finds himself on the run from both the angry gangsters and the police, who have launched a massive manhunt. Nandu and Bhavani (Urmila Matondkar), the lovely cabaret dancer who's tagging along for the ride, assume the package contains gold; both are unpleasantly surprised when it turns out to be something deadlier: a nuclear bomb. 

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Eccentric 70-year-old widow Mrs Laura Henderson purchases a redundant cinema and remodels it to create the Windmill Theatre in London, as a post-widowhood hobby and appoints autocratic manager Vivian Van Damm. In 1937, they start a continuous variety revue called "Revudeville", but after other theatres copy this innovation, they begin losing money. Mrs Henderson suggests they add female nudity, similar to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, something unprecedented in the United Kingdom. The Lord Chamberlain (Rowland Baring, 2nd Earl of Cromer) reluctantly allows this under the condition that the nude performers remain immobile, so the performances can be considered art, the equivalent of nude statues in museums. Because the theatre's auditorium is below street level, it is relatively safe during the bombing of London, and performances continue. The performers bravely go on with the show even during frightening bombing raids, and the posed nude girls resume their poses, after ducking, as the whole theatre is shaken and the scene flats all round them sways when a bomb lands close by. Maureen, one of the cast, becomes involved at Mrs Henderson's instigation with a young soldier, Paul, one of the audience regulars. Maureen becomes pregnant and receives word that after Paul is demobilised, he intends to return to his girlfriend. She becomes very upset, and hands in her notice. Before further developments, she is killed by a bomb while leaving the theatre. Other scenes depict life in the theatre during the period. Mrs Henderson and Mr Van Damm frequently clash, but also show great appreciation for each other. Eventually, the authorities want the theatre to close because of the danger from bombs to crowds gathering outside the theatre. Mrs Henderson successfully argues that for soldiers going to die in the war, this is their last chance, and for many of the young soldiers their only chance, to see female nudity. She reflects on the death of her son in the First World War, and how he may never have even seen a naked girl except on a French postcard he had been carrying when he died in a gas attack. The film's closing credits explain that, on her death in 1944, Mrs Henderson bequeathed the theatre to Mr Van Damm. 

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The game begins at Montsaye High, an abandoned school in Detroit, where Detective Lazarus Jones (voiced by Rob Paulsen) of the Detroit Police Department is on his first day on the job. He is on a routine call with his partner, Anna Steele (Nan McNamara), to investigate reports of unusual sounds in the building. Steele explains that several years previously, a professor murdered ten students, and then disappeared. He was never found, nor was any murder weapon, and the coroner was unable to determine the cause of death of any of the victims. After the two split up to investigate the building, Jones discovers a laboratory in the basement. He presses a switch on a machine, which seems to release a gas of some kind. He is knocked out and when he regains consciousness, he goes to meet Steele in the sewers. However, before he can prevent it, Steele is dragged into a pipe by a transparent man. Jones returns to the lab, where a sentient computer (Joe Morton) explains that when he pressed the button, he shut down an array containing imprisoned ghosts, and he must now set about recapturing them. The program also tells him that he has "supernormal sight"; he can see ghosts with the naked eye. He has acquired this ability because he has fused with Astral; a spirit who wishes to aid him in his quest. The program also explains that his only hope of getting Steele back is to find Professor Richmond, who created the lab. His location, however, is unknown, so Jones must use the "Spectral Gateway" to jump to ghost realms, fighting ghosts until he finds Richmond. After heading to a ghost town, where he saves a young girl from the clutches of the spirit of Lady DeMontford (Jane Hamilton), Jones returns to the lab and learns that Astral's real name is Kate Heller, and she was Richmond's assistant. She is still alive, but her physical location is unknown. Jones then encounters the spirit of the Montsaye librarian (Jane Hamilton) who tells him the legend of the thirteenth century English knight, Sir William Hawksmoor (Michael Gambon); the man Jones saw abduct Steele. A trusted servant of the king, he eventually became too powerful, and a group of aristocrats killed him. Jones also learns that Richmond did not commit the murders in the school. He returned from a journey through the Gateway to find the bodies of the students. Pursuing the murderer, he eventually caught up with Hawksmoor, who explained that he murdered the students to make Richmond follow him. However, Richmond was able to capture Hawksmoor and place him in the array, until he was inadvertently released by Jones. Jones next encounters a ghost ship, where he aids a group of English World War II soldiers, led by Colonel Freddie Fortesque (Michael Cochrane), defeat a monster whom they have been fighting since the War. He then heads to a prison island, Devil's Scar Penitentiary, where he encounters Frank Agglin (André Sogliuzzo), a former police officer who killed several people, including his wife, before being executed by electric chair. Jones, however, discovers that Agglin was possessed by Hawksmoor. He eventually finds Richmond (Joe Morton), but they are attacked by Agglin. Jones defeats him, and Richmond explains that when he captured Agglin's spirit and placed it into the array, Hawksmoor was able to trace Richmond back to Montsaye, resulting in the murders. Richmond reveals that Hawksmoor has Kate's physical body, but he needs Astral, although Richmond is unsure why. He and Jones then head to a secret military base, where Richmond worked during the 1970s, undertaking paranormal research for the government. He explains Kate became trapped in the Astral form due to an experiment that went wrong. She then fused with Richmond as she has now fused with Jones, and they began hunting ghosts. However, Hawksmoor proposed a deal to the military executives of the base - if they granted him Kate's body, as well the right to exploit Richmond, he would destroy their enemies. Learning of this, Richmond fled the base with Kate, going to work in Montsaye High, before Hawksmoor tracked him down. Richmond then betrays Jones, handing him over to Hawksmoor in return for being allowed to leave. As Richmond departs, Hawksmoor uses a machine to extract Astral from Jones. Steele, who is possessed by Hawksmoor, then shoots and kills Jones. However, Richmond's computer program takes control of a heavily armed robotic unit. It encounters Jones' ghost, which it leads to the "Resurrection Machine" – a machine which can reunite a spirit with its physical form. Richmond had discovered that every person who dies before their "allotted time" becomes a ghost, but over a long period of time, each ghost fades away, eventually ceasing to exist. Hawksmoor is attempting to prevent this happening by using the machine, which needs Astral's ghost energy to work. Lazarus is resurrected as Hawksmoor arrives and flings the robot from the balcony. Hawksmoor then enters the machine, but before he can activate it, Richmond returns, giving weapons to Lazarus and Steele, who is now free of Hawksmoor's possession. They destroy the machine and Lazarus battles Hawksmoor, as Richmond finds the robot damaged beyond repair. However, it is in possession of a zero bomb, a device capable of utterly destroying a ghost. Lazarus and Steele flee and Richmond sets off the bomb, killing himself, Hawksmoor and, presumably, Astral. Steele and Jones make it back to the school and joke about how hard it is going to be to write their report. 

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Alf Clayton is a struggling history professor at an obscure junior college in New Hampshire in the mid-Seventies. He's cheating on his wife with another faculty wife, and at the same time he's trying to write a book about President James Buchanan, the last President before Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Just as Buchanan was never able to figure out which side he was on, North or South, slavery or abolition, so Alf can't make up his mind between his warm, relaxed, slightly bohemian wife Norma ("The Queen of Disorder") and younger, sexier, more aristocratic Genevieve ("The Perfect Wife.") The book is actually Professor Clayton's response to a national survey requesting "memories and impressions" of the administration of Gerald Ford by the Northern New England Association of American Historians (NNEAAH). 

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16 September 1897. Churchill is a junior officer in India determined to make a name for himself and to become a member of Parliament. As Sir Winston Churchill (voiced by Simon Ward) narrates, events shift back to his childhood. As a boy, Churchill is sent to a boarding school but is unhappy there. Due to excessive whippings, Churchill is removed from there and sent to another school, Harrow School. Churchill writes nothing down on the exam paper however the headmaster, James Welldon sees the potential in Churchill and accepts him. One evening he recites a long poem of 1000 lines in Harrow. His nanny comes down to listen but his parents do not despite Churchill sending them a letter to. Meanwhile, Churchill's father Randolph contracts a venereal disease. Dr Roose and Dr Buzzard visit Jennie and tell her that her husband has an incurable disease and that he could die in five or six years. One morning, Churchill comes down to breakfast but his behaviour infuriates his father. Randolph bitterly sends his son away to his room. After a conversation with his wife, Randolph goes up to make up with his son. They play with his collection of soldiers and it is there that Churchill decides what it is he wants to do in the future: to go into the army. After three attempts, Churchill is finally accepted by Sandhurst but his father is not pleased because he finished seventh from the bottom of the class and is only eligible to enter the cavalry which will cost an extra £200 a year. Randolph scolds Churchill and warns him to face up to his responsibilities at Sandhurst and that if he does not make something of himself by 21 he will no longer support him. Whilst scolding his son Randolph's illness is apparent as he makes a number of factual errors about him. Towards the end of his life, with failing health, Randolph makes a rambling speech in Parliament witnessed by both his wife and Winston. When Randolph dies this spells the end of Churchill's dream of entering Parliament at his side. Churchill graduates from Sandhurst finishing near the top of the cohort, he becomes a second lieutenant and eventually goes to India and the Sudan. He takes part in the cavalry charge at the Battle of Omdurman. Later, he goes to South Africa to work as a war correspondent during the Anglo-Boer War. As he travels by train, he and the soldiers are ambushed by Boers. They try to move away as far as they can but crash into a pile of rocks on the railway track. Churchill courageously organises the soldiers to push one of the damaged cars so that the train can proceed but gets captured by the Boers. Determined to escape, Churchill eventually seeks help from a man called Mr Howard to get over the border. After three nights in a mine, Churchill gets on a train going into British controlled territory and returns to England a hero. He again stands for the parliamentary seat in Oldham and wins becoming an MP in a Conservative government. With the encouragement of opposition Liberal MP Lloyd George, to the dismay of his mother and annoyance of senior Conservatives he takes up the campaign of his father to limit spending on the military. The film ends with Sir Winston Churchill narrating events that follow including his marriage to Clementine Hozier seven years later. Newsreel footage shows Churchill appearing on the balcony with the Royal family on VE Day, May 1945. 

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Jonathon Tibbs (Kenneth More), son of a family of English gunsmiths, has no interest in the business and prefers inventing gadgets, in particular a steam-powered horseless carriage. Threatened with disinheritance if he does not report for work, he discovers that the company is not doing very well, and concludes that someone must expand their sales. He reads in his newspaper about the wide use of guns in the American West of the 1880s, and decides to go there himself to sell firearms to the locals. He ends up at the small lawless town of Fractured Jaw and inadvertently acquires a reputation for quickness on the draw, due to his wrist-mounted Derringer style weapon. He is innocently drawn into a range war between the "Box T" and "Lazy S" cattle outfits, both of whom claim sole water rights and, when he proves able to stand up to their hired gunmen, is appointed sheriff. He endeavours to clean up the town using what skills he has, and by multilateral diplomacy. He attracts the support of Miss Kate (Jayne Mansfield), a blonde bombshell hotel owner, who helps him to fight off the hired guns of both cattle ranches, who all want him dead. Earning the respect of the local Indian tribe, he becomes a blood brother of theirs, under the name of 'Fleet Iron Hat'. When he and Kate are besieged by the gunmen of both outfits, they come to his rescue and help to arrest the men. The two ranch owners eventually offer a deal to maintain the peace and share the water rights. With relative peace restored, Jonathon decides to remain in Fractured Jaw, becomes an American citizen and marries Kate. 

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The book starts with Nancy Drew witnessing a couple named Kitty and Johnny Blair adopt two baby twins, Jay and Janet, from the Selkirk Foundling’s Home. The babies were mysteriously found in a boat along the river by a nurse at the Home. The Blairs, who are famous actors, decide to adopt the babies as a publicity stunt, as they hope to raise the children as actors, which will help their own careers. The Blairs are cruel to the children, and Nancy sets off to find their real mother and take them away from the Blairs, although the adoption papers have already been signed. Nancy and Bess are invited to a party at the Blair’s estate, Jolly Folly, where Mrs. Blair decides to burn a package of clothes and an old broken locket which came with the children. Nancy, with the help of Hannah Gruen, substitutes the original clothing and locket with some of her old doll clothes and an old locket. She takes Janet and Jay’s original clothing and locket with her for investigation. Nancy is suspicious of the Blair’s maid, Colleen, and their chauffeur, Rodney. Colleen, who was put in charge of the twins, is unfit to care for them. She spends most of her time with her boyfriend, Francis Clancy, and trying on Mrs. Blair’s fancy gowns. Nancy, Bess, and George are disgusted at the girl's actions, although they help her out of many problems. Meanwhile, Edwin McNeery, a theatre producer, tries to get the Blairs to sign a contract requiring them to give up the babies and attend more rehearsals in exchange for parts in his upcoming play. He tells Nancy about his wife, who left him because he wanted her to keep acting when she wanted to start a family. While Nancy and Bess are taking the twins for a stroll on the Blair estate, they see a mysterious woman come up to the twin’s carriage and kiss them. Nancy and Bess try to chase her, but do not succeed. Nancy later tracks down the woman, Ruth Brown, and identifies her as Rodney’s sister and the nurse who found the twins on the river and took care of them while they were at the Selkirk Home. Nancy happily reunites Ruth and Rodney Brown, and Ruth moves in with the Blairs to take care of Janet and Jay when Colleen is discharged. Nancy, meanwhile, tracks down a man named Enos Crinkle, who shows her the boat the twins were found in. She, Bess, and George find the other half of the broken locket, which bears the initials S. M. N. This is the scene portrayed on the cover. This angers Colleen, and the maid plants Mrs. Blair’s valuable locket in Nancy’s car, in an attempt to get her arrested. Nancy, however, outsmarts her, and goes with Bess and George to a cabin along the river. There, Nancy finds the twin’s real mother, who turns out to be Sylvia McNeery, Edwin McNeery’s wife, and Jay and Janet’s mother. The twins are restored to the McNeerys, and choose to employ Ruth and Rodney Brown as their nurse and chauffeur. 

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After Bart sabotages Principal Skinner's weather balloon, Skinner punishes him by making him arrive in the schoolyard at 4:30 a.m. to be his amateur astronomy assistant. Bart accidentally locates a comet, which scientists soon discover is headed straight for Springfield. Professor Frink plans to launch a missile at the comet, exploding it before it touches ground. Instead the missile undershoots the comet and destroys the only bridge out of town. Homer decides his family should stay in Ned Flanders' bomb shelter; anticipating this scenario, Ned has constructed a shelter large enough for several people. Other townspeople soon arrive, crowding the shelter until Homer is unable to close the door. Because everyone else thinks they deserve to live, Ned is expelled from his own shelter. Eventually, Homer feels guilty and leaves the shelter, followed by the other townspeople. Everyone converges on a hill to await a likely death from the comet. As it enters the Earth's atmosphere, the comet burns up in the thick layer of pollution over Springfield. When it touches down, all that remains is a meteorite the size of a Chihuahua's head. Only the shelter and the weather balloon are destroyed, leaving the rest of the town untouched. 

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William is the leader of a group of Confederate deserters during the American Civil War which includes his younger brother Sam, Clyde, and Joseph. With the help of Todd, an escaped slave, and Annabelle, an army nurse, they stage a robbery at a bank holding a cache of rebel gold. Needing a place to rest for the night, the criminals set up camp in a mansion overlooking an abandoned plantation. En route through the fields, they find a strange scarecrow, which they believe is actually a crucified man, and shoot a strange deformed creature. It soon becomes obvious that the old house is not as empty as they thought. The former owner was a gentleman farmer with a wife and two children. When his wife died, he attempted to bring her back by sacrificing his children, slaves, and any other living creature, hoping that black magic acquired from his slaves' native rites would return her to life. However, this simply allowed evil spirits to take over his victims, and these remain in the house, attacking all who dare enter. When they found out what he had done, the locals crucified the farmer in his fields (he is the scarecrow the group found when they first arrived). A storm is coming so Joseph leads the horse into the barn. When he goes to the well to get some water, he gets pulled in by one of the spirits. The others try to find him but fail to do so. The others also experience strange occurrences. While resting in the bedroom, Sam is haunted by the ghost of the farmer, who shows him what happened, while Todd witnesses the ghost of a slave being sacrificed in the basement. Clyde witnesses what appears to be Joseph stumbling about outside and goes to investigate. William and Annabelle, who are guarding the gold, wake up to find it gone and think Clyde took off with it. While William tries to track down Clyde, Sam is possessed by the farmer and shows Annabelle what happened. The ritual turned the farmer's family into demonic creatures similar to the one they killed when they first arrived. Sam dies soon afterwards and Annabelle tries to convince William to leave. Todd also reunites with the pair and is also determined to leave. When they reach the barn, they find the horses torn to pieces. Todd begins to hear and see things the other two cannot and he tries to leave. William refuses to leave without the gold and is accompanied by Annabelle back into the house to find Sam's body missing. In the field, a possessed Sam attacks Todd, throwing him into the air and he vanishes in mid-air. When William and Annabelle go into the fields as well, they find Clyde, now dead and possessed by one of the spirits, crucified like a scarecrow with his eyes and mouth sewn shut. As they try to flee, William accidentally shoots Annabelle, killing her instantly. The next morning, William finally leaves Annabelle's corpse behind. He is attacked by their dog and tries to run away. When William clears the fields, he is shot by a group of Confederate soldiers. It is then revealed that William has also transformed into a demonic creature and the soldiers mistook him for some deformed animal. Two of the soldiers discover gold coins which William dropped and go to investigate the house. As they walk through the fields, they discover the corpse of another demonic creature dead body, presumably that of Annabelle. 

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In 2061, agent Jon Hawking of the United System States is sent to the research ship Prometheus, in orbit around Titan. Hawking's mission is to make contact with the members of Project Firestart, an initiative of the System Science Foundation, who have recently dropped out of communication with their superiors on Earth. Hawking is further instructed to retrieve all of the scientific data on board the Prometheus and then to destroy the ship, based on the USS' belief that Project Firestart has been compromised and could potentially pose a threat to Earth. Should Hawking fail in his mission, the USS will remotely activate the Prometheus' self destruct sequence on the assumption that Hawking himself has been killed. On board the Prometheus, Hawking discovers the entire crew brutally murdered and the ship infested with large, hostile creatures. Retrieving the ship's science logs, Hawking discovers that Project Firestart was a genetic engineering program that sought to create a mining species resistant to extreme cold and low oxygen levels by combining the DNA of oxen with a new species of fungi discovered in asteroids around Titan. Hawking further learns that one of the scientists on the project, Dr. Annar, secretly altered the DNA of the mining creatures in an attempt to create a race of super soldiers. The plan backfired, as Annar's creations proved to be mindlessly hostile and capable of asexual reproduction. Unable to contain the monsters, the crew of the Prometheus was slaughtered. Annar himself survived by placing himself in cryosleep; upon Hawking's arrival on the Prometheus, he awakens. Also in cryosleep is Mary, another Firestart scientist who survived the massacre because she was placed in suspended animation after suffering a minor injury. The creatures spawn a giant, white version of themselves, which begins attacking them. The white creature then seeks out Hawking, who discovers that it is completely invulnerable to all of his weaponry. Using the Firestart scientists' notes on the genetic flaws in their original organisms, he must improvise a way to kill the creature using the resources available to him on board the ship. 

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Raiden Fighters 2 takes place four years after the events of the first game. A few surviving guerrilla groups gather under a dictator. They form a new nation and begin attacks on the protagonists."4 years pass since the defeat of the Dictator's Army. However, the remnant guerrillas gathering under a Dictator make a new nation and start attacks on our forces.", Opening prologue, Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive, SEIBU KAIHATSU INC. 1997 In response, retooled fighters were deployed in a new mission called Operation Hell Dive."The new government force musters the previous fighter-bomber troops and orders a special mission using the newest weapons.", Opening prologue, Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive, SEIBU KAIHATSU INC. 1997 

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Ti Hau is a pupil of Master Ti, a high-ranking member of a boxer clan during the time of the Boxer Rebellion (1899 - 1901). Ti Tan, is a Member of a competing boxer clan who has successfully trained his students to resist penetration from swords (Golden Bell), but sacrifices them by experimenting with techniques to resist bullets. This appalls his niece, Fang Shao Ching. Lei Ying can control subjects with a voodoo doll and ventriloquism. The Yi Ho Society Chief, Li, explains that Lei Kung, an old pugilist master who left to form another branch in Yunan, has dissolved that branch and gone into hiding. Lei Kung no longer believes that their martial arts skills can defeat the modern weapons used by the western colonialists. Chief Yi proclaims Lei Kung a traitor to their movement. The chief orders his execution, and claims he can be identified because he enjoys showing off his kung-fu skills. In Guangdong/Yunan, Ti Hau makes inquiries into the whereabouts of Lei Kung at a popular inn. Also searching is Fang Shao Ching, disguised as a man, and Lei Ying. They are unaware of each other's identities, but observe each other suspiciously. A flamboyant man also shows up and arouses suspicion. Ti Hau and Fang Shao Ching both suspect Lei Ying of being Lei Kung, and sneak into the attic above his room at the inn. They fight in the cramped space as Ti Tan walks into the room below, but he does not see them before they escape. An old woodcutter, Yu, also arouses Ti Hau's suspicion because of his great strength. Fang Shao Ching distracts Ti Hau and lures him away, and they fight again but must stop to hide from Ti Tan. Fang explains to Ti Hau that her and Ti Tan are also Yi Ho members sent to kill Lei Kung, but she maintains her male disguise. Under Fang's guidance, Lei Kung practices with his weapons. Ti Hau, who has been bedridden, sees him, but Lei Kung maintains his identity as the woodcutter Yu by saying that he only looks like Lei Kung, and must defend himself. They both discover that Fang is a woman. When Ti Hau regains his strength, he is grateful to Yu for taking care of him and is about to leave, but Ti Tan arrives. Fang and Ti Hau fight him before Yu, now at full power, engages him. He finally admits to everyone that he is Lei Kung, and declares that he has betrayed the Yi Ho society because he does not want to see all his young students die in a futile attempt to fight foreign modern guns and cannon. He disables Ti Tan, who admits defeat and leaves. Ti Hau feels betrayed and also leaves. Soon after, a Magic Fighter turns up. Fang, believing it to be Ti Hau, berates him as he sits down and prepares, but is then shocked when it's revealed to be Master Tieh. Master Tieh being Ti Hau's sifu (master), and head of the Magic Clan. Master Tieh and Lei Kung engage in a duel, but Ti Hau arrives and interrupts. Master Tieh attempts to uses his mind control techniques on Ti Hau, in order to have him effectively commit suicide, announcing that both he and Lei Kung must die. However Lei Kung intervenes using a Snake Halberd against Master Tieh's 'Double Axe', saving Ti Hau and then disarming Master Tieh. Defeated, Master Tieh chooses to commit suicide using the same eye gouging technique on himself that he (using his mind control) tried to get Ti Hau to do. But, Ti Hai stops him, shaking his head, understanding that there's no point in such meaningless sacrifice. Master Tieh looks at Lei Kung, with a sadness in his eyes that convinces Lei Kung to lay down his weapon, the inference being that he sees how the deaths of so many innocent, young students to further a dead cause serves no real purpose. Ti Hau steps forward and is willing to follow his master, but Master Tieh suggests he remain with Lei Kung, so he can develop both his kung fu and his sense of self-awareness and understanding. Lei Kung dresses in ceremonial garb and arrives at a temple with Ti Hau, Fang Shao Ching, and a full set of weapons. Lei Ying is waiting, and reveals his plan. He wanted Lei Kung to regain his expertise and kill the other assassins. Then Lei Ying could avoid fighting others and concentrate on Lei Kung, killing him and elevating his position in their clan and Yi Ho Society. After an 8-minute duel showcasing most of the 18 weapons and hand-to-hand combat, Lei Kung demonstrates that he could win if he wanted to. But instead, he leaves Lei Ying to his disgrace. 

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Set in New York City in 1949, the novel follows Holocaust survivor Herman Broder. Throughout the war he survived in a hayloft, taken care of by his non-Jewish, Polish servant, Yadwiga, whom he later takes as his wife in America. Meanwhile, he has an affair with another Holocaust survivor, Masha. To Yadwiga, he poses as a traveling book-salesman despite the fact he is simply a ghost writer for a corrupt rabbi. He wanders about New York with a constant paranoia and perpetual desperation, made more complicated when his first wife from Poland, Tamara, who was thought to be killed in the Holocaust, comes to New York. 

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A new fad by the name of "Air Treks" (a futuristic evolution of aggressive skating) has swept the nation's youth and all over gangs are being formed that compete in various events using their A-Ts. Ikki is a middle-school boy who is the toughest street-fighting punk on the east side of town and part of the gang "The East-Side Gunz". He lives with four adopted gorgeous sisters who took him in when he was a kid. But what Ikki doesn't know is that the girls are part of one of the most infamous A-T gangs, "Sleeping Forest". It does not take long before Ikki finds out about the world of Air Treks and is propelled into a fate he had not foreseen, learning about his past and making a number of storm riding allies on the way. 

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Principal Skinner and Edna Krabappel oversee a school field trip to Fort Springfield. Upon arriving, Skinner learns admission is no longer free due to new management. Unable to afford tickets, he has the students watch a Civil War reenactment by peering over the fort's fence. Outraged by the students' attempt to "learn for free", the actors charge at the teachers and students, most of whom barely manage to escape in Otto's dilapidated bus (although Üter is left behind and assaulted). Later, Bart manipulates Krabappel into calling a teachers union strike to protest Skinner's miserly spending. While school is closed, students cope in their own ways: Lisa grows increasingly obsessive in her desire to be graded, Milhouse's parents hire a private tutor for their son, and Jimbo finds himself immersed in the intricate plots of his mother's soap operas. Bart revels in his newfound freedom and continues to manipulate the conflict between Skinner and the teachers' union. When the two sides reach an impasse, Marge demands that the PTA meet to devise a compromise. Skinner insists that even with his penny-pinching, government budget cuts have squeezed the school dry and the only way to increase spending on staff salaries and school supplies is to raise taxes. Ned Flanders suggests that the townspeople act as substitute teachers. While this ploy gets the children back to school, it has its own disadvantages: Professor Frink is ill-equipped to teach preschoolers, Jasper is forced to send Lisa's class home early when his beard gets stuck in a pencil sharpener, and Marge becomes Bart's teacher, making him a laughingstock among his peers. Frustrated, Bart locks Krabappel and Skinner in the principal's office for several hours to negotiate. They devise a plan to use the school's cloakrooms to house convicts from the overcrowded Springfield Penitentiary. This generates enough money to persuade teachers to return to work and keep troublesome students in line, although Bart intends to free Snake Jailbird. 

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The series focuses on the life of junior high school teacher Miss Carrie Bliss (Hayley Mills) at John F. Kennedy Junior High in Indianapolis. She was often put into morally difficult situations by her work and often served as the only person her students could turn to. Her eighth grade students included: Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a charming, manipulative scamp; lazy and not a good student and always looking for the easy way out. However, in the episode "Parents and Teachers", Miss Bliss said that Zack had the most potential of all her students. Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), a rich shopaholic; and best friend of Nikki. Lisa is the crush of many guys in the school and in Miss Bliss's class, especially Screech. Samuel "Screech" Powers (Dustin Diamond), an awkward nerd with a crush on Lisa, but an excellent student and very honest. Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo), Zack's best friend, who, although not generally as awkward as Screech, became quite shy around girls; a good student, especially in math and history but sometimes gets into conflict with Zack. Nikki Coleman (Heather Hopper), who was outspoken and often advocated the moral course of action when the others decided to do something mischievous. The show also featured Mylo Williams (T.K. Carter), a maintenance supervisor, and Miss Tina Paladrino (Joan Ryan), a quirky teacher and friend of Miss Bliss, with whom she would often discuss her personal life, with Miss Paladrino acting as sounding board. Dennis Haskins played the school principal, Mr. Richard Belding. The show was cancelled after 13 episodes, and NBC reclaimed the rights to the show, reformatting Good Morning, Miss Bliss into Saved by the Bell; the characters of Zack, Lisa, Screech and Mr. Belding made the transition to Saved by the Bell, which saw the four moving to the fictional California suburb of Bayside. The series was then integrated into the Saved by the Bell syndicated rerun package, with Miss Bliss episodes being introduced with a cold open by Mark-Paul Gosselaar explaining that they were from an earlier time frame than the rest of the series, followed by a retrofitted version of the regular Saved by the Bell opening sequence. 

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The novel takes place on the planet of Worlorn, a world which is dying. It is a rogue planet whose erratic course is taking it irreversibly away from its neighboring stars into a region of cold and dark space where no life will survive. Worlorn's 14 cities, built during a brief window when the world passed close enough to a red giant star to permit life to thrive, are dying, too. Constructed to celebrate the diverse cultures of 14 planetary systems, they have largely been abandoned, allowing their systems and maintenance to fail. The cast is a group of characters who are also flirting with death. Dirk t'Larien, the protagonist, finds life empty and of little attraction after his girlfriend Gwen Delvano leaves him. Most poignant of all, the Kavalar race, into which she has "married," is dying culturally. Their home planet has survived numerous attacks in a planetary war, and in response they have evolved social institutions and human relationship patterns to cope with the depredation of the war. Yet now that the war is long past, they find themselves trapped between those who would recognize that the old ways need to be reviewed for the current day and those who believe that any dilution of the old ways spells the end of Kavalar culture. The battles, then, of all these varying actors are played out beneath the dying light falling on Worlorn. By the novel's end, many of the characters have died, though some endings are deliberately left ambiguous. Nonetheless, they have all faced their fears of death and of life. 

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The Dimension Transmitter is still in the experimentation stage. However, there is already contact with the eighth planet of the Vega system. With cameras and probes, data were collected from that planet. On the moon base, Ralph Common is lured into the Dimension Transmitter by a telepathic voice. He overrides all safety locks and is transported to the Vega planet, where he is detained by the locals. Professor Common asks Commander Perkins and Major Hoffmann to bring back his son to the moon. They succeed; however, Ralph Common tells them that there must be a connection between Earth and Vega, since there are maps showing the area of the Mediterranean Sea. Communication with the Vegans is not yet possible, with the exception of the "Telepathic Voice", which only Ralph can hear. The Vegans realize that there is a dimension portal set up between the worlds. By waiting at its warp point, they send an emissary to the moon who, however, is killed by accident. In an attempt to mediate, Perkins, Hoffmann and Ralph take another trip to the Vega. They fail, and Perkins is captured. A release attempt succeeds, but apparently the commander was brainwashed and remains in a kind of awake coma. Perkins awakes after half a year - at the same time a Vegan spaceship appears on Earth, which is later accidentally shot down (the ship creates an energy field which scrambles electronic processes in both machines and the human body). Vegan survivors try to reach the Dimension Transmitter in order to return to their home world. Professor Common wants to release the Vegans, but the military wants to cross-examine the extraterrestrials. But while transporting them back to the Vega an error occurs, Perkins, Hoffman and the Vegans are hurled not just through space and to the Vega planet, but also into the past, where the two humans witness the accidental death of a nobleman and are blamed for murder. At the last second, Professor Common finds the two men and can bring them back. Meanwhile, clues were found that the Vegans had something to do with the Biblical disaster of Sodom and Gomorrah. All the Vegan men of the shot spaceship are declared dead, and in retaliation the Vegans send a space fleet to Earth in order to take revenge. The destruction of mankind seems inevitable. Perkins, Hoffman and Ralph travel to Vega to settle the conflict; there they meet Bordon the Immortal, whose aging process had been stopped by a curse (which is linked to the death of the nobleman Perkins and Hoffman had witnessed). Together they manage to halt the attack on earth, but it proves to be only a temporary solution. As the Vegans poise to strike against Earth, Perkins takes a desperate gamble; against the strict orders of Colonel Jason, he hides Professor Common on a deserted moon station and merely disables the Dimension Transmitter, since he knows that the device is mankind's only hope to end this conflict. The Vegans invade Delta-4, but come up empty-handed and - as Perkins has hoped - are now willing to negotiate. To his surprise, the Vegan high commander turns out to be Bordon himself, who is also revealed as the telepathic voice which had lured Ralph into the Dimensional Transmitter. Bordon is participating in the war to prove that the humans are the ones to blame and the Vegans therefore have the right to retaliate. After much arguing, Perkins manages to persuade the Immortal to find the roots for the Vegan antipathy against the humans - by means of controlled time travel back to the last days of Sodom and Gomorrha. Along with Ralph, Perkins, Hoffman and Bordon arrive near the two cities just in time to see a Vegan spaceship land. As it turns out, Sodom and Gomorrah had been the landing site of an ancient Vegan expedition. One of its members, Drapondor (an Immortal like Bordon himself) had disappeared, and that caused a conflict between the two people. As Perkins' group enters the city, they attract unwelcome attention and seek refuge in the house of Lot, where they find Drapondor - infected with leprosy, which is also the cause of his detachment from the expedition force. As the events transpire as recorded in the Bible, Perkins and his group, taking Lot and his family along, manage to escape just before the Vegans drop an atomic bomb, eradicating the two cities. The time travelers are whisked back into their own time at the last second; in Delta-4 Drapondor is cured of the disease, and the series ends with Bordon making a public apology to the people of the Earth. 

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*The Red Fog A red veil deposits itself around Earth which lets humans disappear when it lowers to the ground. It is found out, the fog originated from the Dimension Transmitter as a small ball came and damaged. After the repair Commander Perkins, Major Hoffmann and Ralph Common travel to the planet Empty, from which the fog came and investigate, how to fight the strange substance, threatening all life on Earth. *Planet of the Soulless Ralph Common and all the psi-talented humans on Earth lie in dying, a telepathic power of the planet Psion seems to destroy their brains. In the last second Ralph can be protected with a special helmet against the psi attack. Commander Perkins, Major Hoffmann, Ralph Common and the robot Camiel travel to Psion investigating the cause of the attack. They determine that on the strange planet, all inhabitants act like soulless machines. 

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Professor Common discovers a planet that is littered with spaceship wrecks across the planet's surface. The military (including Colonel Jason) have a primary interest in retrieving the weapons from the destroyed spaceships. During the exploration, the Humans are frightened by a highly sophisticated people. One of their scientists, Coleman, even ealerts the aliens to the humans' presence by activating some of the wrecks' equipment. An evacuation of the planet takes place immediately, but documents determining the galactic position of the Earth brought along by Coleman remain on Arrow. Perkins and Hoffman, with the scientist in their company, are sent back to the ship graveyard to retrieve or destroy them, but the aliens (which resemble humanoid panthers) are alerted and Coleman begins to act increasingly irrational. As it turns out, he has come under the mental control of a metal-devouring creature the aliens use to dispose of the wrecks, which later kills the scientist. Perkins and Hoffman are taken prisoner. In the meantime, Professor Common, Cindy and Colonel Jason try their best to retrieve Perkins' group, but they do not succeed. Instead, however, a strange device appears in the Dimension Transmitter which emanates strange impulses which grow stronger and stronger. The professor, assuming that the device is either a weapon or a homing beacon, immediately sends it to another solar system. In their holding cell on Arrow, Perkins and Hoffman encounter a fellow prisoner: one of the aliens, who introduces himself as Polcor, a Galactic Weapon Master. In addition, the cell is telepathically empowered and begins to pull the information about Earth from their minds when Professor Common rescues them. After the two have reported, Colonel Jason realizes the value of Polcor as a source of information and sends them back - along with Ralph - to retrieve him from the cell and question him on an uninhabited planet. But Polcor's identity turns out to be a ruse: He is in fact the ruler of the Galactic Weapon Masters on Arrow, and he had developed a horrible weapon - a Sun Annihilator - for a greater cosmic power, the Middle Eye, which had, of course, been refused. In order to make up for the disgrace, Polcor tries to blame mankind for the existence of the weapon. What is worse is that the Sun Annihilator is actually the device Professor Common had accidentally snatched with the Dimension Transmitter. Retrieving the Annihilator, Perkins, Hoffman, Ralph and Polcor return to Arrow, to be captured by the Middle Eye, an alien race appearing as sentient, eye-like beings. Polcor's accusations against the humans are easily countered by Perkins; still, the Middle Eye decides to keep the humans as prisoners to learn the location of Earth from them. Polcor, on the other hand, is punished for his deceit by being forced to watch his home planet getting destroyed by the Middle Eye. In revenge, Polcor frees the humans and enables their escape from the Eye's ship before they can be interrogated, and with the help of Professor Common they return safely to Earth. 

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Dr. John Lightfire has discovered a planet which exhibits best living conditions. After an examination too swift Humans begin to colonize "Lightfire." On a tour with Ralph Common and his friend George Croden Commander Perkins discover an ancient robot. The machine attempts to attack them, but collapses from weakness brought on by age. Ralph and George start to age rapidly. Humans determine Lightfire is a sacred planet which must not be set foot on by threat of annihilation of the whole race of the trespasser. In the hasty evacuation, the Copanian high priest Arentes manages to smuggle himself to Earth. He finds Humans interesting and wants to study them to find out, whether they might be worth to be spared. Meanwhile, the Humans have successfully deceived the Copanians into attacking a different uninhabited planet instead of Earth. Closer investigations determine the bait planet to be consumed by a Copanian controlled black hole is inhabited after all. Feverishliy, the Humans try to save the doomed planet and its inhabitants. 

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On planet Phart, Perkins, Hoffmann, Camiel, and Cindy Common discover a buried sleeper ship. On board is a martial people for whom the planet is meant to be a prison. Humans wake these warriors not knowing what grave danger for other planets they evoke. The ship takes course on the planet Canyoura around it to attack. Perkins and the others go to Canyoura to warn the population. The people of the planet to not believe them, citing that no one would dare attack the planet as it has one of the Seven Columns. When humans research the meaning of these columns, they are taken prisoner and trained to become gladiators for Canyouran entertainment. On the run Perkins and Hoffmann discover the secret of the First Column, immortality. 

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The Masquerader is a comedy short whose plot revolves around making films at Keystone. Charlie plays an actor who bungles several scenes and is kicked off the studio. The next day a strange, beautiful woman appears to audition for the film. It's Charlie in drag. After doing a perfect impersonation of a female, Charlie has drawn the attention of the director who hires the new "actress" for his films. The director gives the beautiful woman the men's dressing room to change in. While there, Charlie returns to his tramp costume. When the director returns, looking for the woman, he finds Charlie and realizes he has been tricked. Angry, the director chases Charlie through the studio until Charlie decides to jump into what he thinks is a prop well. The film ends with the director and other actors laughing at Charlie as he is trapped in the bottom of a real well. The plot involving a man dressing up as a woman was quite popular in silent movies. 

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Boyd Pritchett is a genial, easy-going twenty-something from Virginia who delivers his sister Wyleen to college in Boston. Then Boyd falls in love with Joy and decides to stay, much to Wyleen's dismay. Boyd eventually gets a job at the college to help pay his sister's tuition and shares an apartment with Wyleen whose inclination is to be sexually active, but Boyd tries to inspire her with his chaste pursuit of Joy. 

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Investment banker Laurel Ayres (Whoopi Goldberg) is a smart and single woman trying to make it up the Wall Street corporate ladder, until one day she finds out that she is passed over for a promotion because she is a woman. Unable to face the fact that her less intelligent male protege, Frank Peterson (Tim Daly), has now become her boss, she quits and tries to start up her own company only to find out that the male dominated world of Wall Street is not interested in taking an African American woman seriously, and thus is forced to create a fictional white man, Robert S. Cutty (inspired by a bottle of Cutty Sark) to legitimate her talents and make her professionally relevant in said world. Ayres does extensive research into the cultural and performative codes of the culture she seeks to impersonate. Ayres' financial wisdom is joined by the intelligent and computer-savvy secretary Sally Dugan (Dianne Wiest), who also was not properly recognized for her talents. Together they are able to become the most successful independent stockbrokers in the world while helping a struggling high-tech computer company stay afloat. However, the ruse eventually runs into problems because Cutty is still getting credit for Ayres' great ideas, while competing firms and tabloid journalists are willing to do anything in order to bring the wealthy and elusive Cutty into the public and on their side. Thus Ayres is forced to get her best friend (who works at a nightclub as a female impersonator) to create an effective disguise in the mould of Marlon Brando to try to fool the naysayers; when that fails, she and Dugan decide to kill Cutty only to be charged with his murder. Frank uncovers the ruse and pretends that he is now the front man to world- famous Cutty. The film ends with Ayres donning the Cutty disguise one last time to attend a meeting of the exclusive gentlemen's club to accept Cutty's awards and unmasking herself in order to teach the male-dominated industry the evils of racial and sexual discrimination. Ayres is finally given credit for her work and creates a huge business empire with her friends at the helm. Frank attempts to land a job with the business, only to be laughed off. 

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Eduardo puts out a call to all of Mexico's youth to find members for his new musical group, Muñecos de papel ("Paper Dolls"), but at the last minute he cancels everything to go on tour with his beloved Lorena. The group decides to forge ahead without Eduardo, and thus six young people get to live their dreams of achieving fame and fortune. The series addresses many problems facing today's youth in the anecdotes about the lives of the members of the band. 

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The legend of "Claire of New Orleans" is born after two fishermen find a wedding dress floating around on the Mississippi River one day. The legend tells that the Countess Claire Ledux disappeared on her wedding day in the year of 1840, and when the dress was found, the people of New Orleans assumed that the bride had committed suicide by throwing herself into the river. This is how the story begins, and then we find out what really happened, as the story of Claire Ledux is revealed. When Claire arrives in New Orleans for the first time in her life she has a strong ambition to become Mrs Charles Giraud - a very rich and renowned banker. She gets her opening one night at the opera, when she manages to get the seat next to the banker. Trying to catch the unsuspecting banker's attention she fakes fainting in her seat. The banker immediately rushes to her rescue and Claire's mission is accomplished. Desperate to see the beautiful Claire again, Charles sends his valet over to Claire's maid Clementine after the opera. The maid forwards the message, asking Claire to meet with Charles in the park. Claire and the maid make a plan to let a man harass Claire in the park, so that Charles can come to her "rescue". But even the simplest plans go wrong, and on the way to the park Claire's carriage runs over a monkey by accident. The monkey belongs to river boat captain Robert Latour. he stops the carriage, but since Clementine believes this is the man they hired to make a fuzz with them, she tells the driver to go on and ignore the man. Robert Latour is aggravated by this behaviour and tips the carriage over. After this incident, where Charles was not only stood up by Claire since the carriage never arrived, but also deprived of a chance to come to her aid, he swears to avenge Robert Latour's insolent behaviour. He also vows to properly take care of and guard Claire every night from now on. Attending a Mardi Gras festivity, Claire recognizes Robert Latour in the crowd, and points him out to Charles, who is quick to challenge Robert to a duel. Robert gets to choose weapons, and he chooses knives, something Charles isn't quite prepared for. Robert gets a distinct advantage over Charles in the duel, and Claire steps in to interrupt what she fears will be the end of the banker's life. She tells Charles that she mistook Robert for someone else, thus ending the battle. To settle the matter once and for all, Robert invites Claire to dinner on his rover boat the following night. He borrows 150 dollars to pay for the feast. But while Claire is getting ready for her meeting with Robert, Charles arrives and throws her a proposal of marriage there on the spot. Claire accepts his proposal, and sends a message via her maid to Robert, cancelling the dinner without telling him the real reason. Robert fears that Claire is taken ill and in need of a doctor. He rushes over to her house to offer his assistance, but sees Charles through the window, and realizes the real reason for her rejection. Only two days before their wedding Charles throws a party in Claire's honor. To the party comes many distinguished guests, and among them are the newly arrived Russian gentleman Zolotov. This man sees Claire and recognizes her from St. Petersburg. During the evening Zolotov tells stories of Claire to a friend of his, Bellows, and Charles' brother-in-law hears them talk. Charles hears of the stories and is upset, challenging Zolotov to a duel. Zolotov has no wish to enter a duel with the banker, and swears he must have been mistaken, since the girl he knew was known to fake fainting to get a man's attention. At this point Claire faints - for real this time, and is carried out of the room. The next day Charles comes to visit Claire in her home in order to break off their engagement. He doesn't get to meet Claire, but is instead confronted by a woman named Lili - Claire's look-alike and illegitimate cousin from St. Petersburg. A woman of highly questionable reputation, seen from Charles' point of view. Charles agrees to meet with Lili that same night at the Oyster Bed Café, located down by the docks. Charles brings Zolotov and Bellows to the restaurant, and demands that Lili leave town never to return - he doesn't wish to be associated with the kind of woman she is. Feeling threatened, Lili decides to leave, but before she does she bumps into Robert Latour. Robert opens his heart to Lili and tells her he is in love with Claire, and has been since he first met with her. Charles finds Lili and Robert talking, and promises to settle Robert's loan debt if he takes Lili out of New Orleans. Robert agrees to this. Robert passes by Claire's house and peers through the window, seeing Lili inside. He puts two and two together and realizes that Lili and Claire are the same person. He doesn't confront her, but tells what he has found out to Charles. They conspire to abduct Lili/Claire and hide her away on Robert's boat until the wedding. Once Robert arrives back to his boat with Claire, he sets her free and she decides to stay the night. The morning after Claire tells Robert that they will never see each other again. The wedding is held as planned a day later, but when Claire sees Robert as one of the guests, she realizes that he is the one she loves and fakes fainting again. In the turmoil that follows, Claire disappears and is nowhere to be found. She sails away with Robert on his boat, and throws her wedding dress into the Mississippi river.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/75093/The-Flame-of- New-Orleans/ 

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The novel takes Jacques Cormery from birth to his years in the lycée, or secondary school, in Algiers. In a departure from the intellectual and philosophical weight of his earlier works, Camus wanted this novel to be "heavy with things and flesh." It is a novel of basic and essential things: childhood, schooldays, the life of the body, the power of the sun and the sea, the painful love of a son for his mother, the search for a lost father. But it is also about the history of a colonial people in a vast and not always hospitable African landscape, about the complex relationship of a "mother" country to its colonists, and about the intimate effects of war as well as political revolution. 

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An aging director (named "Bergman") conjures in his imagination the central character, Marianne. He interviews her to compose the story of her life-changing affair. Marianne had been happily married to Markus, an orchestra conductor, with a young daughter Isabelle. Her best friend is David, who is seeking funding for a film project. When Markus is away, David approaches Marianne and they go to Marianne's home. There, David surprises her by asking her if they can sleep together. Marianne asserts she sees David more as a brother; she eventually agrees they can sleep in the same bed in nightwear and without sexual relations. However, the two note they are both planning to be in Paris, France, for separate projects. Markus is aware of their travel plans, and Marianne speculates she and David can meet in Paris, and they would not have to deceive Markus about seeing each other there. In Paris, Marianne and David begin their affair. David also asks Marianne about her sexual history, and Marianne shares her "modest" list of experiences; but this mostly consists of her relations with Markus, who she said had satisfied her in ways no one else had. This triggers a violent jealous reaction in David. David and Marianne continue their affair after returning from Paris. Following heard rumors, Markus eventually discovers the two together. Markus begins to seek a divorce, and seeks full custody of Isabelle. Marianne gets a lawyer, who tells her Markus has the upper hand, given her desertion of the home. Marianne moves in with David and the two plan to get married; Marianne becomes pregnant with his child. Her lawyer advises that these improved conditions could help her custody case. Markus eventually reaches out to Marianne to meet him alone to settle the custody case, ostensibly for Isabelle's sake. Despite David's angry objections, she agrees to go. At the meeting, Markus blackmails her for sex in exchange for custody. Marianne confesses to the affair to David. The two separate and Marianne has an abortion. After hearing Markus has committed suicide, Marianne learns he had also been unfaithful with his page-turner. Bergman bids farewell to Marianne, but she says she suspects they will meet again. 

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John Ashbery summarizes Locus Solus thus in his introduction to Michel Foucault's Death and the Labyrinth: "A prominent scientist and inventor, Martial Canterel, has invited a group of colleagues to visit the park of his country estate, Locus Solus. As the group tours the estate, Canterel shows them inventions of ever-increasing complexity and strangeness. Again, exposition is invariably followed by explanation, the cold hysteria of the former giving way to the innumerable ramifications of the latter. After an aerial pile driver which is constructing a mosaic of teeth and a huge glass diamond filled with water in which float a dancing girl, a hairless cat named Khóng-dek-lèn, and the preserved head of Danton, we come to the central and longest passage: a description of eight curious tableaux vivants taking place inside an enormous glass cage. We learn that the actors are actually dead people whom Canterel has revived with 'resurrectine', a fluid of his invention which if injected into a fresh corpse causes it continually to act out the most important incident of its life." As well as Czech, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Spanish and other translations, there have been three English translations of the work in question, all based on Rupert Copeland Cunningham's scholarship and transcription. 

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The author presents a centralized Earth society of the sixty-sixth century, in which children are educated by almost instantaneous direct computer/brain interface, a process known as taping. This system is similar to the BrainCap, a concept later explored by Arthur C. Clarke. Besides educating its own people this way, Earth also supplies educated professionals to other planets, the Outworlds. People in this future society are taught to read at the age of eight and then Educated at the age of eighteen. Each person's professional speciality is dictated by an analysis of his or her brain, with no choices allowed to the subject. The best of the Educated people compete in professional "Olympics" in the hope of being "bought" by an advanced Outworld. To stay on Earth is almost an admission of failure. George Platen is determined to be a Computer Programmer, a profession in demand, and he hopes to qualify for "export" to a top-flight Outworld. On Reading Day, however, concerns are raised about George's ability to be Educated. On George's Education Day, he is told that his brain is unfit for any form of Education. He is drugged and sent to a House for the Feeble Minded. Although not under physical guard, George stays in the House for a year, where the staff tolerates and even encourages his philosophical and intellectual ruminations as a way to pass the time. He is befriended by Omani, who seems to take a personal interest in George's plight. George then determines to escape, to leave and seek out Dr. Antonelli who told him he was feeble-minded, and confront him. George visits the Olympics, which are happening in San Francisco at that time. He meets his friend Armand Trevelyan, who has been Taped as a 'Metallurgist, Nonferrous'. Trev is excited about his opportunities but performs poorly on the Beeman spectrograph — his Taping was inadequate regarding the new device—and he is forced to take employment on a fourth-rate Outworld. George, watching Trev bitterly depart, wishes him well. Trev turns and sarcastically asks, "Well, what have you done?" He then shakes George. A passing policeman breaks up the scuffle and asks George for his identity card. His ruse is up, he will be exposed as an Uneducated escapee. Suddenly a stranger appears. He gives the policeman his business card and takes possession of George. The stranger introduces himself as Ladislas Ingenescu, Registered Historian. George and Ingenescu enter into a long conversation about history, society, and progress. George impatiently demands, and Ingenescu obtains for him, an interview with a Novian, an Outworlder on Earth to purchase talent. The Outworlder knows Ingenescu personally. He expresses anger at the Registered Historian (why to a Registered Historian, George wonders?) over Earth continually introducing very minor changes to the Tapes — such as the recent addition of the Beeman spectrograph for Metallurgists — necessitating the Outworlds to keep spending money to stay up to date. The Registered Historian introduces George as someone who thinks he may have a better solution. George contends that people can learn in ways other than being Taped, such as by reading books and in discussion with those who already hold the desired knowledge. This baffles the Outworlder, who sees it only as a source of additional expense. He breaks off their conversation. George is dismayed; the Registered Historian offers condolences. George is returned to the House and discovers the reality: the House is an Institute of Higher Studies. Those people who have the urge and persistence to create, even though they have been told otherwise about their abilities, are sent there to support the advancement of science and civilization. George has always been under constant observation, and it was subtly but deliberately suggested that he escape and seek out the doctor who sent him there. Reflecting on his experiences "outside," George realizes that a man named Beeman would have to have been the inventor of the Beeman spectrograph. Beeman could not have been Tape-educated and still have created the new device. Someone has to program the Tapes that program the Educated, "men and women with capacity for original thought." George's "keepers" in the Institute are revealed as sociologists, psychologists, historians, scientists, and other professionals who also demonstrated an innate capacity for original thought but not the stamina to keep fighting to express it. Their job is to help other determined, innovators like Georgea small fractionto avoid the same fate. The future of society is at stake. George himself has one final question. He asks, "Why do they call them Olympics?". 

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Washington Post columnist John Klein and his wife Mary are involved in an accident when Mary swerves to avoid a black, flying figure. John survives the crash unscathed, but Mary is hospitalized. After Mary dies of an unrelated brain tumor, John discovers mysterious drawings of the creature that she had created in hospital. Two years later, John becomes lost in West Virginia and inexplicably finds himself in Point Pleasant, hundreds of miles off his route. Driving in the middle of the night, his car breaks down, and he walks to a nearby house to get help. The owner, Gordon Smallwood, reacts violently to John's appearance and holds him at gunpoint. Local police officer Connie Mills defuses the situation while Gordon explains that this is the third consecutive night John has knocked on his door at 2:30 AM asking to use a phone, much to John's disbelief. John stays at a local motel and ponders how he ended up so far from his original destination. Officer Mills mentions to John that many strange things have been occurring in the past few weeks and that people report seeing a large winged creature like a giant moth with red eyes. She also tells John about a strange dream she had, in which the words "Wake up, Number 37" were spoken to her. During a conversation one day, Gordon reveals to John that he has heard voices coming from his sink telling him that, in Denver, "99 will die". While discussing the day's events at a local diner, John notices that the news is showing the story of an airplane crash in Denver that killed all 99 passengers aboard. The next night Gordon frantically explains that the voices in his head emanate from a being named Indrid Cold. Later that night Gordon calls John and says that he is standing next to someone named Indrid Cold. While John keeps Cold on the line, Officer Mills checks on Gordon. Cold answers John's questions, including ones he could not possibly know the answers to, convincing John that Cold is a supernatural being. This episode starts a string of supernatural calls to John's motel room. One tells him that there will be a great tragedy on the Ohio River. Later John receives a call from Gordon and rushes to his home to check on him. He finds Gordon outside, dead from exposure. John becomes obsessed with the being dubbed the Mothman. He meets an expert on the subject, Alexander Leek, who explains its nature and discourages John from becoming further involved. However, when John learns the Governor plans to tour a chemical plant located on the Ohio River the following day, he becomes convinced the tragedy will occur there. Officer Mills and the governor ignore his warnings, and nothing happens during the tour. Soon afterwards, John receives a mysterious message that instructs him to await a call from his deceased wife Mary back in Georgetown, and he returns home. On Christmas Eve, Officer Mills calls and convinces him to ignore the phone call from "Mary", return to Point Pleasant, and join her. Though anguished, John agrees. As John reaches the Silver Bridge, a malfunctioning traffic light causes traffic congestion. As John walks onto the bridge to investigate, the bolts and supports of the bridge strain. The bridge comes apart, and John realizes that the prophesied tragedy on the Ohio River was about the bridge. As the bridge collapses, Officer Mills' car falls into the water. John jumps in after her and pulls her from the river and up to safety. As the two sit on the back of an ambulance they were informed that 36 people have been killed, making Connie the "number 37" from her dream. The cause of the bridge collapse was never fully determined. Although the Mothman has been sighted in other parts of the world, it was never seen again in Point Pleasant. 

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The main narrative tells the story of Powers' return to his alma mater – referred to in the novel as simply "U.", but clearly based on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the school Powers attended and teaches at as a professor – after he has ended a long and torrid relationship with a loving but volatile woman, referred to as "C." Powers is an in-house author for the university, and lives for free for one year. He finds himself unable to write any more books, and spends the first portion of the novel attempting to write, but never getting past the first line. Powers then meets a computer scientist named Philip Lentz. Intrigued by Lentz's overbearing personality and unorthodox theories, Powers eventually agrees to participate in an experiment involving artificial intelligence. Lentz bets his fellow scientists that he can build a computer that can produce an analysis of a literary text that is indistinguishable from one produced by a human. It is Powers' task to "teach" the machine. After going through several unsuccessful versions, Powers and Lentz produce a computer model (dubbed "Helen") that is able to communicate like a human. It is not clear to the reader or to Powers whether she is simulating human thought, or whether she is actually experiencing it. Powers tutors the computer, first by reading it canonical works of literature, then current events, and eventually telling it the story of his own life, in the process developing a complicated relationship with the machine. The novel also consists of extensive flashbacks to Powers' relationship with C., from their first meeting at U., to their bohemian life in Boston, to their move to C.'s family's town in the Netherlands. The novel culminates with Helen being unable to bear the realities of the world, and "leaving" Powers. She asks Powers to "see everything" for her, and subsequently shuts herself down. Her exit from the world forces Powers to experience a rebirth. In addition, Powers realizes that he was Lentz's experiment: would he or wouldn't he be able to teach a computer? Through the transformation he experiences, he is suddenly able to interact with the world, and he can write again. 

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When Josh Ockmann (Jonathan Tucker) enters a dark university library intending to meet his friend Douglas Ziegler (Kel O'Neill), he is attacked by a humanoid spirit that sucks the life force out of him. Some days later, Josh's girlfriend, Mattie Webber (Kristen Bell), visits his apartment, seeing evidence that it has not been well kept. Josh tells Mattie to wait in the kitchen while he walks off. While waiting she finds Josh's pet cat, locked in a closet and dying from severe malnutrition. But when she rushes to tell him, she finds that he has committed suicide by hanging himself with an Internet cable. Mattie and her friends begin to receive online messages from Josh asking for help, but assume that Josh's computer is still on and that a virus is creating the messages. Mattie learns that Josh's computer has been sold to Dex McCarthy (Ian Somerhalder), who finds a number of strange videos on the computer. Mattie receives a package that Josh mailed two days prior to his death. Inside are rolls of red tape and a message telling her that the tape keeps "them" out, although he does not know why. Later, Dex visits Mattie and shows her video messages that Josh was sending to Ziegler. Josh had hacked Ziegler's computer system and then distributed a virus. This virus had unlocked a portal that connected the realm of the living to the realm of the dead. Josh believed that he had coded a counter to the virus and wanted to meet Ziegler at the library. Josh's counter-program is found on a memory stick taped inside the PC case with red tape. Dex and Mattie visit Ziegler and find his room entirely plastered in red tape. They believe that the red tape keeps the spirits out. Ziegler tells them of a project he worked on where he found "frequencies no one knew existed." Opening these frequencies somehow allowed the spirits to travel to the world of the living. Ziegler also tells them that these spirits "take away your will to live" and where to find the main server infected with the virus. Dex and Mattie find the server and upload Josh's fix, causing the system to crash and the spirits to vanish. Moments later, however, the system reboots and the spirits return, leaving Mattie and Dex with no option but to flee the city by car. Over the car radio, Mattie and Dex hear a report from the Army announcing the location of several "safe zones" where there are no Internet connections, cell phones, or televisions. As Dex and Mattie drive to a safe zone, the film concludes with a voice-over from Mattie saying "We can never go back. The cities are theirs. Our lives are different now. What was meant to connect us to one another instead connected us to forces that we could have never imagined. The world we knew is gone, but the will to live never dies. Not for us, and not for them." Clips of abandoned cities are shown, including a window of an apartment with Josh looking through it. 

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Taylor Rusk is a star college quarterback and a can't-miss prospect in The League. Through various illegal means, North Texas is awarded an expansion franchise. As expected, the expansion Texas Pistols draft Rusk number one. The Pistols have a five-year plan to turn the team into champions, and getting Taylor Rusk ready is the key. But Rusk is on to the corruption and refuses to be a victim. With his college coach at the helm and "old league" legends mentoring him, Taylor Rusk plays The League's game until it's time for him to make his most daring move to bring it down. But along the way, Rusk is betrayed. One teammate, a chronic con man, becomes the Pistols' general manager and ultimately betrays him. Another teammate suffers a devastating knee injury and the subsequent surgery is botched. Rusk sees him get tossed aside and, due largely to steroid abuse, he murders his family and commits suicide. Five years later, the Texas Pistols are world champions, but Taylor Rusk has little time to celebrate. He's got to save the life of another victim: the woman he's fallen in love with -- who's also the mother of his son. They ultimately take control of the Texas Pistols for him. Category:1983 American novels Category:American football books Category:American sports novels Category:Novels set in Texas 

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After a shootout with dozens of assassins, Wong Kom, bodyguard to Chot Petchpantakarn, the wealthiest man in Asia, finds his client killed. Chaichol, the son and heir to the family fortune, fires the bodyguard and takes it upon himself to find the killers. He's then ambushed, and the rest of the bodyguard team is wiped out. Chaichol, however, comes out of it alive, and finds himself in a Bangkok slum, living with a volunteer car-accident rescue squad and falling in love with tomboyish Pok. Meanwhile, Wong Kom is working to clear his name, and stay ahead of the chief villain and his bumbling gang of henchmen. 

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After her parents are killed in a drive-by shooting, a young woman named Oui has no place else to go. She shows up at a printing house run by her Aunt Bua and is given the task of caring for her aunt's grandson, a young boy named Arm, a kid who sees ghosts. Oui suffers from hallucinations, brought on by the trauma of seeing her parents killed, and is taking medications. And Aunt Bua is involved in some sort of mysticism, and keeps a strange shrine in the house. With the drug war by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as a subtext, many threads in this strange ghost story are somehow tied together. 

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From the official website: > "Banished deep into the evil Banewoods for daring to practice her own unique > brand of Molotov Magick, outcast Dogwitch Violet Grimm continues to stretch > the boundaries of accepted 21st Century witchcraft. As tales of bad sex and > dangerous voodoo spread her infamy through the Banewoods, Violet captures > the attention of a multitude of weirdos and resigns herself to what she > believes is her predestined B-movie lifestyle. Churning out provocative home > videos for a berserk and hungry fan base in her pursuit of arcane knowledge, > she feeds her diary with the dating rituals of the sick and heinous. Violet > is the Garbo of witches, a reclusive legend in a depraved, gory, funny and > fiendishly sexy world." 

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Suzuka is a sports-themed romance comedy that intertwines the pursuit of love and athletics. The story is based around Yamato Akitsuki, a young man from rural Hiroshima Prefecture moving to the big city of Tokyo, and his new next-door neighbor, Suzuka Asahina, a skilled high jumper. Yamato falls in love with Suzuka and pursuing a relationship with her he joins the track and field team hoping to impress her. After joining, Yamato discovers that he has the potential to become a top hundred-meter sprinter. Suzuka's character- driven plot predominantly makes use of dramatic structure to facilitate character development. Characterization is further achieved through the use of character back-story. The story in general employs a realistic tone, but occasionally uses surreal humour. Some events covered in the story are: track competitions, vacations, culture festivals, and outings to a Karaoke Box and a theme park. The manga and anime follow the same storyline, though there are minor differences. One of these changes is that the nude scenes are less graphic in the anime than the manga. Another disparity is the hair color of some of the characters such as the character Miki, who is depicted as having bright red hair on the covers of the manga, but is portrayed with red-brown hair in the anime. 

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The Swallows and Amazons are in Lowestoft, preparing for a cruise aboard a schooner, the Wild Cat, with Captain Flint, the Blacketts' uncle Jim Turner. Unfortunately the other adult (Sam Bideford) cannot come and so the cruise is threatened until Peter Duck, an elderly seaman, offers to come along to help. In the harbour a larger black schooner, the Viper, is fitting out for a voyage and Peter Duck's presence aboard the Wild Cat interests Black Jake, the Viper’s captain. Peter Duck spins a yarn about a treasure that he saw being buried long ago, when marooned on a desert island in the Caribbean Sea, and which Black Jake wants to find. When the Wild Cat sails, the Viper is quick to follow and trails her down the English Channel, at one point threatening to board her in the night. In a fog off Land's End, the crew of the Wild Cat give the Viper the slip but pick up the Viper’s cabin boy, Bill, who has been set adrift to try and fool the Wild Cat’s crew with false signals. They continue across the Atlantic Ocean to Crab Island where they spend several days searching in vain for Peter Duck's treasure. When a hurricane blows up, Peter Duck and Captain Flint take the Wild Cat out to sea to ride out the storm, leaving the Swallows and Amazons ashore. There is an earthquake during the storm, and when the schooner returns all the paths to the treasure-hunters' camp are blocked by landslides and fallen trees. However, a fallen palm tree exposes a small box, Peter Duck's treasure, which the children recover. They decide to sail round to the anchorage as the land route is blocked. While Captain Flint attempts to cross the island to rescue the Swallows and Amazons, the Viper arrives and Peter Duck and Bill are captured. The crew of the Viper also go ashore to look for the treasure. The children rescue Peter Duck and Bill, and then the Wild Cat sails back to the other side and they pick up Captain Flint just before Black Jake arrives. They attempt to sail away from the island but the wind dies and the Viper looks like catching them, but they are saved by a waterspout which destroys the Viper. They return home safely without further incident. The treasure proves to be a collection of pearls. 

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Priya Bakshi (Preity Zinta) is the bubbly, free-spirited daughter of Gulshan (Anupam Kher) and Rohini Bakshi (Farida Jalal). Priya's parents, brothers, and best friend, Ajay (Chandrachur Singh) love and support her. Ajay is secretly in love with Priya and wishes to marry her in the future. Priya enters her first year of university and quickly catches the eye of wealthy playboy Rahul (Saif Ali Khan), who becomes attracted to her. She succumbs to his charm but Ajay and her brother Vicky are unsure about Rahul. His reputation and womanizing ways worry them, and they warn her to stay away from him. However, Priya believes that Rahul is in love with her, and the two begin a relationship and have sex. Priya convinces her parents to meet Rahul, but when they prematurely talk about marriage and the future, he mocks them and leaves Priya. Priya is heartbroken but tries to move on with her life. She later learns that she is pregnant with Rahul's child. Her parents go back to Rahul to talk about marriage once again. He acknowledges that he is the father but still does not want to marry Priya. Rahul's mother also berates Priya's family, believing that they are looking for financial compensation. Priya is faced with a decision, and she chooses to keep the child. Her decision prompts her father to willfully banish her from the house due to the shame. Alone and neglected, Priya is devastated. However, her family later finds it hard to live without her and they bring her back, supporting her during her pregnancy. Priya goes back to university, where she is shunned due to her pregnancy and 'spoiled' character. Rahul's mother, who is part of the university's board of directors, tries to convince the other parents that Priya should be expelled due to her character. Ostracised by friends, neighbours, and society, Priya realises Ajay's love and dedication for her. The university holds a year-end performance, where a group of students put on a play that mocks and vilifies Priya and her pregnancy. After the play, Priya makes a passionate speech about love, honour, and respect. Her words move many in the audience, including Rahul. Her friends apologise to her, and she gains the support of the community. Later, Ajay declares his love for Priya and desires to marry her. However, Priya worries whether Ajay will accept her and her unborn child. Ajay tells her he is fully willing to accept both her and her child as his own. Unknown to Priya and Ajay a remorseful Rahul approaches Priya's family and reveals he is ready to apologise and raise his and Priya's child together to which they agree. Priya water breaks before she can answer Ajay's proposal and she goes to the hospital to give birth, where she's joined by Rahul and her family. At an event to celebrate the birth of Priya's baby, Rahul proposes to Priya, stating that he is ready for marriage and to raise their child. Ajay wishes them well and begins to walk away. However, Priya rejects Rahul and confesses her love for Ajay, asking him whether he's still willing to accept her and her child, Ajay agrees to this. Rahul accepts Priya's decision, wishes them well, and leaves. 

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Five thousand years ago, in Sumer, the fallen angels had intercourse with human females and their offspring were a race of giants called Nephilim, destroyed by the great flood. The evil angel Ammon (Navid Negahban) mummifies his son Aramis to save him, and hides in hell. In the present days, the archaeologist Matt Fletcher (Casper Van Dien) finds Aramis tomb while excavating for building a resort for the entrepreneur Morton (Robert Wagner). The engineer Angela (Kristen Miller) joins the team, giving support in the diggings. When some workers mysteriously vanish, Morton hires the security force of Ammon to find the missing men. However, his real intention is to resurrect Aramis in the eclipse of the moon and dominate the human race with a new breed of giants. In the end, by creating a flood, they are able to drown both Aramis and Ammon, but not before Ammon reveals he has other children scattered at the four corners of the globe. 

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The film first starts out with FBI and ATF agents on a pursuit to stop a truck carrying illegal guns as part of an illegal arms operation. The result is the death of the driver, which leads to a disagreement with FBI and ATF agents on involvement with the case. Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze) is a truck driver who has just been released from jail for vehicular manslaughter, for accidentally hitting and killing a motorist and his passenger on the side of the road during a trip in which he experienced a Black Dog hallucination brought on by exhaustion. Along with his imprisonment, he also lost his Commercial driver's license. Following his release, he attempts to get back to a normal life, but this time holds a job as a truck mechanic for a local repair shop in New Jersey, unable to drive himself. He is then offered a job by his manager, Frank Cutler (Graham Beckel) to drive a load of toilets from Atlanta to New Jersey for $10,000. Jack initially declines the offer, but then finds out that his house will be repossessed unless he pays off his debt. He then changes his mind and takes the job where he flies down to Atlanta to meet up with Red (Meat Loaf), who runs the trucking yard. Red initially gives Jack a brand-new truck to haul the load, but Jack chooses an older Peterbilt 379 in order to not draw too much attention. He is accompanied on the trip by Earl (Randy Travis) riding shotgun, and Sonny (Gabriel Casseus) and Wes (Brian Vincent) following in Sonny's Chevrolet Camaro for policy protection. As they make their way to New Jersey, Jack and the guys experience several run-ins with Red and his crew as they attempt to hijack the load, in retaliation for the failed negotiations with Cutler about money. During the trip, Jack finds out that his load also contains illegal guns (over $3,000,000 worth, according to ATF), and that Wes has been informing Red of their whereabouts throughout the trip. Jack also discovers that Sonny is an FBI agent when he is shot and killed by Red during another hijack attempt, and that the FBI has been tracking their whereabouts as well. Jack then reveals to Earl and Wes the reason why he lost his license with his sighting of the Black Dog, a herald of destruction for truckers, and how he didn't see the motorist until it was too late. Things take a turn for the worse when Cutler takes Jack's wife Melanie and daughter Tracy hostage to ensure that Crews will complete the job and finish the entire trip. Despite the numerous attempts from Red to hijack the load, as well as Sonny's death, Jack manages to survive each attempt. When they make it to Maryland, Jack becomes aware of the entire plot and formulates a plan to turn over the guns to the FBI and to get his family back. Wes, at this point, has gone his separate way, while Earl decides to stay on until the end. Jack puts the FBI tracking device on the truck that Wes is leaving on and eventually the FBI pulls over the truck to realize it is the wrong one. However, Jack calls Agent Allen Ford (Charles Dutton), who is leading the case on Wes' cell phone. He tells him his plan which is to meet him at a loading dock in Jersey, where he will be meeting with Cutler to exchange the guns for his family. When the meeting occurs, the FBI arrives and a shootout occurs with Cutler's men. Jack is able to catch Cutler before he can escape and then turns him over to the FBI. As a token of gratitude, the FBI gives Jack his commercial driver's license back, and also tells the Crewses that their house won't be foreclosed, in return for his assistance during the operation and they thank him for bringing Sonny's body back. He is also given the key to drive the truck one last time to the impound lot. Also, Jack thanks Earl, who was wounded in the shootout between the FBI and Cutler's men, for staying, and in return Earl tells Jack to take care of his dog, Tiny (a pit bull riding in the trailer as a guard), until he heals and everything is sorted out. As the Crewses leave the docks for the impound lot, they are intercepted by Red, who makes one last attempt at Jack's life, but ultimately their slamming into each other causes Red to lose control of his truck, which then flips over numerous times before getting hit by a train and exploding. 

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